Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes with Nickel Cyclam for the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2.
Silvia PuglieseNgoc Tran HuanJéremy FortéDomenico GrammaticoSandrine ZannaBao-Lian SuYun LiMarc FontecavePublished in: ChemSusChem (2020)
The exploitation of molecular catalysts for CO2 electrolysis requires their immobilization on the cathode of the electrolyzer. As an illustration of this approach, a Ni-cyclam complex with a cyclam derivative functionalized with a pyrene moiety is synthesized, found to be a selective catalyst for CO2 electroreduction to CO, and immobilized on a carbon nanotube-coated gas diffusion electrode by using a noncovalent binding strategy. The as-prepared electrode is efficient, selective, and robust for electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO. Very high turnover numbers (ca. 61460) and turnover frequencies (ca. 4.27 s-1 ) are enabled by the novel electrode material in organic solvent-water mixtures saturated with CO2 . This material provides an interesting platform for further improvement.