From Biomimicking to Bioinspired Design of Electrocatalysts for CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction to C<sub>1</sub> Products
Panagiotis Trogadas, Linlin Xu, Marc‐Olivier Coppens
Abstract
Abstract The electrochemical reduction of CO 2 (CO 2 RR) is a promising approach to maintain a carbon cycle balance and produce value‐added chemicals. However, CO 2 RR technology is far from mature, since the conventional CO 2 RR electrocatalysts suffer from low activity (leading to currents <10 mA cm −2 in an H‐cell), stability (<120 h), and selectivity. Hence, they cannot meet the requirements for commercial applications (>200 mA cm −2 , >8000 h, >90 % selectivity). Significant improvements are possible by taking inspiration from nature, considering biological organisms that efficiently catalyze the CO 2 to various products. In this minireview, we present recent examples of enzyme‐inspired and enzyme‐mimicking CO 2 RR electrocatalysts enabling the production of C 1 products with high faradaic efficiency (FE). At present, these designs do not typically follow a methodical approach, but rather focus on isolated features of biological systems. To achieve disruptive change, we advocate a systematic design methodology that leverages fundamental mechanisms associated with desired properties in nature and adapts them to the context of engineering applications.