Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Selective Oxidation of Small Organic Molecule as Anodic Reaction to Boost CO<sub>2</sub> Electrolysis
Jianjun Tian, Changsheng Cao, Dong-Dong Ma, Shu‐Guo Han, Yingchun He, Xin‐Tao Wu, Qi‐Long Zhu
Abstract
Replacing anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with the oxidation of small organic molecules in CO 2 electrolysis is an ingenious strategy to reduce the energy consumption while produce valuable anodic products instead of low‐value O 2 . Herein, an advanced CO 2 electrolysis system constructed by replacing OER with selective methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is reported as a proof‐of‐concept, which achieves the yielding of value‐added products in both cathode and anode. Notably, the MOR over a self‐supported NiCo‐based metal–organic framework‐derived anode (NiCo‐NF‐ET) only needs 1.291 V to reach a high current density of 100 mA cm −2 , which is about 346 mV lower than that of OER. Simultaneously, formate can also be produced with the Faradaic efficiencies approaching to 100%. Consequently, in comparison with the conventional CO 2 electrolysis system, integrating cathodic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) with anodic MOR can lead to the reduction of about 880 mV to deliver the current density of 30 mA cm −2 , while without compromising the selectivity of the products in both electrodes. Herein, the great potential to increase the economic benefits of CO 2 electrolysis via the rational design of nonprecious electrocatalysts and participated anodic oxidation reactions is shown.