Transforming Carbon Dioxide into Butanol through the Use of Phosphorus-Rich Copper Electrodes for Economic Benefit
The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in South Korea has made a significant breakthrough in the field of CO conversion. A team led by Prof. Dr. Jaeyoung Lee, the vice director of the ERTL Center for Electrochemistry and Catalysis at GIST, has developed a procedure to convert CO into 1-butanol using copper phosphide (CuP) without CO dimerization.
The research, published in the prestigious journal ACS Energy Letters on 11 June 2021, has been available online since 11 May 2021. The paper, with the DOI 10.1021/acsenergylett.1c00723, details the development of a CuP-based electrocatalyst that is highly product-selective, inducing a C-C coupling reaction and avoiding the formation of CO, a critical intermediate for Cu-based systems.
The team, which includes Ph.D. student Mr. Minjun Choi, the paper's first author, Dr. Jin Won Kim, and Prof. Sungyool Bong, has been working tirelessly at the ERTL Center for Electrochemistry and Catalysis at GIST. Choi, who is focusing on developing a Cu-based electrode for the electrochemical conversion of CO, explained that the goal is to design new electrodes that are stackable, increase production rates, and promote conversion efficiency to make the conversion and use of CO as a fuel a reality.
Prof. Sungyool Bong, a research associate professor at the ERTL center, has a research focus on fuel cells, CO conversion, and chemical energy conversion. Dr. Jin Won Kim, a senior researcher and research assistant professor at the ERTL Center, received a PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering from GIST in 2015.
The researchers confirmed that their CuP electrocatalyst yielded 1-butanol with a remarkably high Faradaic efficiency of over 3%. This is among the first instances in which CuP has been used to develop an electrocatalyst that is highly product-selective.
GIST, founded in 1993, consistently receives one of the highest university rankings in Korea. Known for its strong research environment and collaboration between foreign and domestic research programs, GIST is a research-oriented university in Gwangju, South Korea. The GIST website can be accessed at http://www.gist.ac.kr/.
The authors of a subsequent paper on the development of a copper phosphide electrochemical catalyst for direct 1-butanol production without CO-dimersification, published in 2023, include Qichao Tang, Yifan Zhang, and Aliaksandr S. Bandarenka.
This groundbreaking research at GIST could pave the way for more efficient and sustainable methods of CO conversion, potentially revolutionizing the field and making CO a viable fuel source.
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