RESEARCH ARTICLE

Electrodeposited porous Pb electrode with improved electrocatalytic performance for the electroreduction of CO2 to formic acid

  • Jing WANG ,
  • Hua WANG ,
  • Zhenzhen HAN ,
  • Jinyu HAN
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  • Tianjin Co-innovation Center on Chemical Science & Engineering, Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of State Education Ministry, School of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Received date: 17 Mar 2014

Accepted date: 02 May 2014

Published date: 07 Apr 2015

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

A porous Pb foam was fabricated electrochemically at a copper substrate and then used as the cathode for the electroreduction of CO2. The surface morphology and composition of the porous Pb electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction. The honeycomb-like porous structure was composed of needle-like Pb deposits. Cyclic voltammetry studies demonstrated that the porous Pb electrode had better electrocatalytic performance for the formation of formic acid from CO2 compared with a Pb plate electrode. The increase in current density was due to the large surface area of the porous Pb electrode, which provides more active sites on the electrode surface. The improved formic acid selectivity was due to the morphology of the roughened surface, which contains significantly more low-coordination sites which are more active for CO2 reduction. The highest current efficiency for formic acid was 96.8% at -1.7 V versus saturated calomel electrode at 5 °C. This porous Pb electrode with good catalytic abilities represents a new 3D porous material with applications for the electroreduction of CO2.

Cite this article

Jing WANG , Hua WANG , Zhenzhen HAN , Jinyu HAN . Electrodeposited porous Pb electrode with improved electrocatalytic performance for the electroreduction of CO2 to formic acid[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2015 , 9(1) : 57 -63 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-014-1444-8

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21206117) and the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities, China (No. B06006).
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