Investigating the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Oxalate in Aprotic Solvents with Pb
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Updated: May 13, 2025

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Jinfeng Jia1, Jiayi Chen1, Ioannis Katsounaros2
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Republic of Singapore.
Abstract:
Modulating the interaction between the catalyst and solvent offers a promising strategy to tune selectivity in electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2R). In this work, the production of oxalate (C2O4 2-) through CO2R using Pb is investigated. Then, the CO2R performance of Pb foil is studied in various aprotic electrolytes, including acetonitrile, dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and propylene carbonate (PC). It is found that solvent polarity and hydrogen bond donor ability significantly affect reaction selectivity. Notably, DMF exhibits an oxalate Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 88% at 15 mA cm-2, attributed to enhanced stabilization of reaction intermediates and reduced hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. Finally, a titration-based analytical method for oxalate quantification is developed, suitable for various aprotic electrolytes and offering a simple and rapid approach, which is validated using high-performance liquid chromatography.
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