Copper-Doped Tin Oxides Supported on Mesoporous Carbon Xerogel for Boosting the Electrochemical Reduction of CO₂ to Formate in Bicarbonate Solution Coupled with CO₂

The electrochemical reduction of CO₂ into valuable products at mild reaction conditions and using cheap renewable electrical energy are goals to sustain a low-carbon economy. Among the various CO₂ reduction reaction products, formic acid (FA) has received significant attention because of its low Gibbs free energy input requirement and the simple reduction reaction involving the transfer of 2 electrons and 2 protons. In this work, a copper-doped tin oxide catalyst supported on a mesoporous carbon xerogel was shown to enhance the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to formate in a bicarbonate solution coupled with CO₂. We observed that the synergistic SnCu oxides enhance the selectivity toward formate from 58.6% for Sn oxide and 28.7% for Cu oxide to over 71.2% for the SnCu oxides. The observed rate of formate production with SnCu oxide was 2.8 times higher compared to the rate of Cu oxide and about 1.5 times higher than with the Sn oxide catalyst. Our results reveal that selectivity for formate comes partly from the electrolysis of the bicarbonate solution and partly from continuous CO₂ gas purged into the solution. The contribution from the electrolysis of bicarbonate solution ranges from 15% to 40% when the concentration of bicarbonate solution ranges from 100 mM to 1 M. Chronoamperometric measurements for stability revealed that Cu oxide and Sn oxide showed stable current density for less than 30 h while under the same conditions, the stable current density was observed for more than 50 h with SnCu oxide catalyst. Additionally, the selectivity toward formate increased by 6% when the reactor pressure was increased from near ambient pressure to 4 psig. Our lab-scale electrochemical cell with SnCu oxide supported on the mesoporous carbon xerogel enhances the CO₂ solubility, minimizes the precipitation of salts that can degrade the catalytic performance, and suppresses the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction, demonstrating the feasibility of using our catalyst and system for the electrochemical conversion of CO₂ into formate with high selectivity, productivity, and stability. This could have significant implications for the mitigation of CO₂ emissions and the development of a sustainable chemical industry.