Investigating the role of potassium cations during electrochemical CO reduction.

The specific identity of electrolyte cations has many implications in various electrochemical reactions. However, the exact mechanism by which cations affect electrochemical reactions is not agreed upon in the literature. In this report, we investigate the role of cations during the electrochemical reduction of CO by chelating the cations with cryptands, to change the interaction of the cations with the components of the electric double layer.

Electrochemical CO reduction on nanostructured metal electrodes: fact or defect?

Electrochemical CO reduction has received an increased amount of interest in the last decade as a promising avenue for storing renewable electricity in chemical bonds. Despite considerable progress on catalyst performance using nanostructured electrodes, the sensitivity of the reaction to process conditions has led to debate on the origin of the activity and high selectivity. Additionally, this raises questions on the transferability of the performance and knowledge to other electrochemical systems.

Lateral Adsorbate Interactions Inhibit HCOO while Promoting CO Selectivity for CO Electrocatalysis on Silver.

Ag is a promising catalyst for the production of carbon monoxide (CO) via the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO ER). Herein, we study the role of the formate (HCOO ) intermediate *OCHO, aiming to resolve the discrepancy between the theoretical understanding and experimental performance of Ag. We show that the first coupled proton-electron transfer (CPET) step in the CO pathway competes with the Volmer step for formation of *H, whereas this Volmer step is a prerequisite for the formation of *OCHO.

Improved charge separation via Fe-doping of copper tungstate photoanodes.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting offers a clean pathway to renewable and sustainable energy in the near future. The key to improving the efficiency of PEC devices is the ability to find materials with suitable optoelectronic properties, and identifying, then overcoming their limitations. In this paper, we explore the photoelectrochemical performance of CuWO4 photoanodes for solar water splitting, and find that charge separation is the dominant limitation for this material.