Electrochemical CO2 reduction: Electrocatalyst, reaction mechanism, and process engineering

•Review of recent development in CO2 reduction electrocatalysts.•Recent advances in understanding reaction mechanism of CO2 electroreduction.•Design and engineering challenges towards practical CO2 electrolysis processes.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from fossil fuel utilization poses a potential thread to global climate. Recent development in electrochemical CO2 reduction opens up new possibilities of utilization of CO2 as a carbon feedstock for fuel generation and commodity chemicals. This article reviewed progress related to electrochemical CO2 reduction in the past few years, with a focus on new development of CO2 reduction electrocatalysts, mechanistic understanding of CO2 electro-reduction reaction, and process engineering efforts in CO2 electrolyzers. Additionally, critical issues associated with current state-of-art systems were identified and potential directions for future studies were discussed. The article aims at providing the community a timely review of recent technical achievements as well as inspiring new ideas towards a practical CO2 electrolysis technology.

Graphical abstractRecent progresses on electrochemical CO2 reduction have been reviewed, with a focus on new development of CO2 reduction electrocatalysts, mechanistic understanding of CO2 electro-reduction reaction, and process engineering efforts in CO2 electrolyzers.Download high-res image (123KB)Download full-size image