Electrochemical capture and conversion of carbon dioxide in acetonitrile using quinones

• Main Author: Tam, Si Man
• Other Authors: Richard D. Webster
• Format: Thesis-Master by Research
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Science::Chemistry
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144185
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The rising levels of CO2 concentration in our atmosphere is one of the pressing issues faced to date as it can drive global environmental changes which could affect our livelihoods. In this work, quinones were investigated for their suitability as electrocatalysts for CO2 capture and conversion. Quinones are well known for their binding affinity to electrophiles in their reduced formed, and the ability to modify and add substituents onto quinones to alter their electronic and steric properties allow them to be versatile as an electrocatalyst. 1,4- Napthoquinone (NQ) was found to be a potentially suitable electrocatalyst due to its ability to capture and react with CO2. A hydrogen donor is suspected to be produced during the electrochemical cycling of NQ in the presence of CO2 based on the decrease in the potential separation of the quinone reduction processes i.e. ΔEred = | EQ1 – EQ2 | (where EQ1 was the first reduction potential and EQ2 was the second reduction potential). The formation of different intermediates was also determined using UV-Visible spectroscopy when NQ is reduced in the absence and presence of CO2. Other quinones were also investigated but they did not appear to show as much promise as NQ as an electrocatalyst.