Light-driven Design of CO2 Electroreduction Catalysts

Pelayo Garcia De Arquer (ICFO)

ABSTRACT: 

The electroreduction of CO₂ to chemicals has the potential to enable a transition from fossil to renewable sources in the vast chemical industry – for example to produce clean fuels and materials for manufacturing. I will present recent advances in the design of catalysts for CO2 electroreduction into value-added molecules. I will show how using light we can reveal fundamental properties about catalyst atomic structure, composition and operation, and how this information can be used to guide in the design of more selective and active catalysts.

RECOMMENDED PAPERS:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201802858

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aay4217

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-018-0182-6

BIO:

Dr. Pelayo García de Arquer earned his PhD from ICFO, during which he investigated how the interaction between nanostructured semiconductors and metals could be manipulated dictating key optoelectronic properties such as absorption, charge transport and doping.

He joined the University of Toronto as a Connaught Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioinspired Ideas for Sustainable Energy. In his postdoctoral work, he expanded his research in the field of clean energy. He explored the use of emerging liquid-processed materials such as perovskites, low dimensional perovskites, quantum dots, and their combination, to control energy transfer at the nanoscale. Soon, he turned his attention to energy storage based on hydrogen and CO₂ electroreduction. In this area, he advanced in the understanding and performance of catalysts for these reactions, offering new insights into their design considering material transformations, and gas, electron and ion management.

At ICFO, García de Arquer established a research program focusing on CO₂ Mitigation Accelerated by Photons (CO₂MAP). His group explore the conversion of CO2 into renewable fuels and commodities using clean energy. This has the potential to reduce the massive carbon footprint of existing manufacturing and transport processes.