Title : Catalytic pathways for clean energy transition: Advancing CO₂ conversion and hydrogen production toward a net-zero future
Abstract:
The rapid development of scalable low-carbon energy technologies is essential to meet the growing climate crisis, and heterogeneous catalysis is key to enabling the clean energy transition. In this work, we investigate the design and performance of multifunctional catalytic systems for two important processes: electrochemical reduction of CO2 to value-added fuels and chemicals and catalytic production of green hydrogen by water splitting. We aim at the rational design of catalyst surfaces on the nanometre scale that simultaneously improve reaction selectivity, turnover frequency and long-term stability under realistic operating conditions.
The transition metal-based catalysts were supported on high surface area substrates and characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Electrochemical performance was evaluated in a custom flow-cell reactor, and product distribution was analysed by gas chromatography. First results show enhanced CO2-to-CO selectivity exceeding 85% at moderate overpotentials, coupled with stable hydrogen evolution activity over prolonged cycling. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were used to elucidate active site geometry and reaction intermediates, providing mechanistic insights to inform rational catalyst optimisation.
These results add to the growing evidence that precision catalyst engineering can bridge the gap between lab-scale proof-of-concept and industrially relevant energy applications. The current study provides insights into the structure-activity relationships of electrocatalytic systems and offers a viable route towards carbon-neutral chemical production. Future perspectives are integration with renewable energy sources and scale-up assessment in wider power-to-x contexts.
