Electrochemically Assisted Cycloaddition of Carbon Dioxide to Styrene Oxide on Copper/Carbon Hybrid Electrodes: Active Species and Reaction Mechanism
Wenze Li, Ke Qi, Xingyu Lu, Yujie Qi, Jialong Zhang, Bingsen Zhang, Wei Qi
Abstract
Abstract A novel electrochemically assisted cycloaddition process is proposed, in which highly efficient coupling of CO 2 with styrene oxide (SO) can be achieved to form styrene carbonate (SC) as a high‐value‐added product. A series of Cu catalysts with different morphologies and chemical states were fabricated on carbon paper (CP) by using in‐situ electrodeposition, and the sample with nano‐dendrimer structure was found to exhibit a relatively high activity of 74.8 % SC yield with 92.7 % SO conversion under gentle reaction conditions, thus showing its potential for practical applications. The relatively high electrochemically active surface area and charge transfer ability of dendrimer‐like Cu benefited the electrochemical reaction. In particular, the Cu 2+ species that were formed in situ during the reaction played a vital role in enhancing the activity and selectivity of the proposed Cu/CP hybrid catalyst. Cu 2+ atoms served as active sites that can not only electrochemically activate CO 2 but also facilitate the ring opening of SO. Mechanistic analysis suggested that the reaction followed electrochemical and liquid‐phase heterogeneous paths, which provide a new green and sustainable route for efficient utilization of CO 2 resources for fine chemical electrosynthesis.