Domino electroreduction of CO₂ to methanol on a molecular catalyst.

Abstract

Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction can in principle convert carbon emissions to fuels and value-added chemicals, such as hydrocarbons and alcohols, using renewable energy, but the efficiency of the process is limited by its sluggish kinetics^1,2. Molecular catalysts have well defined active sites and accurately tailorable structures that allow mechanism-based performance optimization, and transition-metal complexes have been extensively explored in this regard. However, these catalysts generally lack the ability to promote CO₂ reduction beyond the two-electron process to generate more valuable products^1,3. Here we show that when immobilized on carbon nanotubes, cobalt phthalocyanine-used previously to reduce CO₂ to primarily CO-catalyses the six-electron reduction of CO₂ to methanol with appreciable activity and selectivity. We find that the conversion, which proceeds via a distinct domino process with CO as an intermediate, generates methanol with a Faradaic efficiency higher than 40 per cent and a partial current density greater than 10 milliamperes per square centimetre at -0.94 volts with respect to the reversible hydrogen electrode in a near-neutral electrolyte. The catalytic activity decreases over time owing to the detrimental reduction of the phthalocyanine ligand, which can be suppressed by appending electron-donating amino substituents to the phthalocyanine ring. The improved molecule-based electrocatalyst converts CO₂ to methanol with considerable activity and selectivity and with stable performance over at least 12 hours.