Theoretical Insights into the Selectivity Trends in CO2 Reduction

发布日期:2018-11-20

报告人:肖建平 研究员

西湖大学

邀请人:马衍东 教授

报告时间:11月23日  8:30  

报告地点:知新楼C1011

报告人简介:

2009-2013年在德国不来梅大学物理和电子工程系攻读博士学位(指导导师:Thomas Frauenheim教授Thomas Heine教授),主要从事固体氧化物表面稳定性和反应性的理论研究。2013-2015年在中国科学院大连化学物理研究所进行博士后研究工作(合作导师:包信和研究员/院士),主要研究在限域环境下催化反应中的一般性规律和电子结构根源。2015-2017年在美国斯坦福大学进行博士后研究工作(合作导师:Jens K. Nørskov 教授/院士),主要研究电化学还原二氧化碳得到液体燃料的基本原理和方法。2017年11月回国在西湖大学理学院工作总共发表学术论46篇,包括Science, Nature Energy, Nature Communications, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, JACS, Angew Chem, Chemical Science 等

报告摘要:

Chemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into value-added chemicals, e.g., ethanol, has been recognized to be one of the most effective ways of carbon sources cycling. However, the selectivity of CO2 reduction is still a challenging problem due to a variety of products formation, such as methanol, methane, formic acid, and carbon monoxide, associated with complicated reaction mechanisms. Herein, we propose a simple and effective theoretical analysis of ‘reaction phases diagram’ for understanding the selectivity of CO2 reduction, based on the principle of reaction free energies with sequential priority. Using this principle, fundamental understandings of different products formation in CO2 reduction is rationalized. On the basis of reaction free energies analysis, the selectivity trends of CO2 reduction to methane, methanol, and ethanol from a number of experiments are discussed. At the end, we confirmed the selectivity trend above with a computer algorithm of searching full reaction pathways, explaining well the effects from catalyst sizes, substrate observed in experiments.