The data set contains a figure illustrating unique examples of electroreduction processes of both carbon dioxide and nitrogen in semi-acidic medium. Furthermore, the thermodynamic potentials characteristic of both processes mentioned above are also provided as schemes. It is noteworthy that the practical CO2 and N2 reduction potentials would be much more negative than the standard (E0) values.
The review article presents overview of recent results concerning electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 and N2. There has been growing interest in environmentally friendly alternative energy sources, energy conversion, and low-temperature methods of formation of fuels or utility chemicals. In this respect, the development of catalysts for effective electroreduction of small inert inorganic molecules, such as CO2, and N2, is of primary importance.
Regarding the continuously rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the development of advanced technologies permitting CO2 utilization (reduction) is highly desirable. In principle, conventional electrocatalytic and visible-light-induced photoelectrochemical approaches are well-suited for reducing carbon dioxide and, possibly, generating carbon-based fuels or chemicals. But electroreduction of CO2 requires large over-potentials and suffers from the competitive hydrogen evolution. To overcome the problems, highly specific and selective catalysts would be required to drive effective conversion (reduction) of carbon dioxide (and water) into fuels, syn-gas, or utility chemicals. For example, the Cu-intercalated WO3 nanowires have exhibited good selectivity toward CO2-reduction, relative to the competitive hydrogen evolution, even in acidic medium.
The formation of ammonia is one of the most important chemical synthetic processes. In this respect, development of a low-temperature synthetic methodology is tempting from both practical and fundamental reasons. Currently, most electrochemical approaches to drive N2-fixation suffer from slow kinetics due to the difficulty of achieving the appropriate adsorption and activation of the dinitrogen molecule, leading to cleavage of the strong triple N≡N bond. We demonstrate recent approaches in this respect. For example, the coordinatively stabilized iron catalytic sites, e.g., iron-centered heme-type porphyrins or iron phosphides, Fe2P or Fe3P, (alone or metal oxide supported) could act as efficient catalysts for the formation of NH3 in alkaline and semi-neutral media.
