Electrocatalysis in non-thermal plasma for energy storage

用于储能的非热等离子体电催化

• 批准号: EP/X000931/1
• 负责人: Angel Cuesta Ciscar
• 金额: $ 32.52万
• 依托单位: University of Aberdeen
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX000931%2F1
• 关键词: Electrocatalysis; non; thermal; plasma; energy

The Energy Transition requires the development of technologies that allow for efficient energy storage and conversion or allow to decarbonise important industrial processes. Electrochemical processes are inherently energy efficient, but the sluggishness of some electron transfer processes (e.g., the reduction of CO2) often still makes their efficiency not high enough to overcome their cost. Plasma catalysis has also been proposed for some of these processes as it enables the activation of highly stable molecules like CO2 and N2 even at ambient temperatures through the collision of these molecules with highly energetic electrons. The method makes possible the electrification of catalytic processes, avoiding the use of toxic or hazardous chemicals. It has been recently shown that plasmas can act as the electrolyte in an electrochemical cell, which opens the doors to the exciting possibility of joining plasma and electrocatalysis to obtain the best of both worlds. However, these studies either used a flame (a hot plasma) as the electrolyte or lacked a detailed study of the response of the electrode-plasma interface to an applied potential.We propose a fundamental study of relevant electrochemical processes in plasmas aimed at identifying conditions under which the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to useful products can be achieved efficiently and with good selectivity. We will focus on Cu electrodes because copper is the only material on which the electrochemical reduction of CO2 in aqueous media results in hydrocarbons (with other materials reduction does not go beyond carbon monoxide or formic acid). The project will also involve the design of cells and methodologies to record infrared and optical emission spectra during the electrochemical experiments, with the aim of identifying intermediates and products of the reaction, thereby elucidating reaction mechanisms and product distributions and yields. In a second stage, the deep understanding of the reactions occurring at the electrode-plasma interface will be used to build a lab prototype of a plasma electrolyser converting CO2 to hydrocarbons.Although we will focus on the reduction of CO2 and the oxidation of hydrogen (the two reactions involved in a cold-plasma CO2 electrolyser aiming at producing hydrocarbons), they will set a world first, and once developed they will establish the standard for similar studies of other reactions in our and other laboratories. Furthermore, because the oxidation of hydrogen must also be one of the half reactions in other relevant processes (e.g., the fixation of nitrogen as ammonia) our work will also provide significant advance towards diversifying the technology to processes other than CO2 reduction.

能源转型需要开发能够实现高效能源存储和转换或实现重要工业流程脱碳的技术。电化学过程本质上是节能的，但某些电子转移过程（例如二氧化碳的还原）的缓慢通常仍然使其效率不足以克服其成本。等离子体催化也被提议用于其中一些过程，因为即使在环境温度下，等离子体催化也能通过这些分子与高能电子的碰撞来激活高度稳定的分子，如二氧化碳和氮气。该方法使催化过程的电气化成为可能，避免使用有毒或危险化学品。最近的研究表明，等离子体可以充当电化学电池中的电解质，这为将等离子体和电催化结合起来以获得两全其美的令人兴奋的可能性打开了大门。然而，这些研究要么使用火焰（热等离子体）作为电解质，要么缺乏对电极-等离子体界面对施加电位的响应的详细研究。我们提出对等离子体中相关电化学过程进行基础研究，旨在确定条件在此情况下，可以有效且具有良好的选择性地将CO2电化学还原为有用的产物。我们将重点关注铜电极，因为铜是水介质中 CO2 电化学还原产生碳氢化合物的唯一材料（与其他材料相比，还原不会超出一氧化碳或甲酸）。该项目还将涉及电化学实验过程中记录红外和光发射光谱的电池和方法的设计，目的是识别反应的中间体和产物，从而阐明反应机理以及产物分布和产率。在第二阶段，对电极-等离子体界面发生的反应的深入了解将用于构建将二氧化碳转化为碳氢化合物的等离子体电解槽的实验室原型。尽管我们将重点关注二氧化碳的还原和氢气的氧化（旨在生产碳氢化合物的冷等离子体二氧化碳电解槽中涉及的两个反应），它们将创下世界首创，一旦开发出来，它们将为我们和其他实验室的其他反应的类似研究建立标准。此外，由于氢气的氧化也必定是其他相关过程中的半反应之一（例如，将氮固定为氨），因此我们的工作还将为使技术多样化到二氧化碳还原以外的过程提供重大进展。