Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to 2-Bromoethanol in a Membraneless Cell

by Shenghong Zhong, Zhen Cao, Xiulin Yang, Sergey M Kozlov, Kuo-Wei Huang, et.al.
Year: 2019 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.9b00004

Extra Information

ACS Energy Letters

Abstract

Tremendous research efforts have been made to electrochemically convert CO2 into useful chemicals, with the main products being limited to hydrocarbons and oxygenates. One-step processes that integrate CO2 reduction with a subsequent reaction to produce other types of functional chemicals are economically attractive. Here we report that direct electrochemical conversion of CO2 to 2-bromoethanol, a valuable pharmaceutical intermediate, is enabled by coupling the anodic and cathodic reactions with the presence of potassium bromide electrolyte in a membraneless electrochemical cell. The maximum Faradaic efficiency of converting CO2 to 2-bromoethanol that we achieved is 40% at −1.01 VRHE with a partial current density of −19 mA cm–2. Our work demonstrates a new strategy for making value-added products from CO2 through a simple process.