A new gas phase electrocatalytic approach to reduce CO2 by using non noble metals nanocarbon materials

We present here a novel approach to recycle CO2 to fuels in a gas phase photo-electrocatalytic (PEC) cell by using nanostructured carbon-based materials (typically CNT) doped with non noble metals as electrocatalysts. The capability to develop advanced nanostructured electrodes tuning their properties during the synthesis, is of great importance to control the process yield and selectivity allowing to form long C-chain liquid fuels with high energy density which can be integrated in the existing energy infrastructure. Results showed that the use of Fe-Co/CNT allowed to enhance the selectivity, while the presence of Cu in combination with Fe increased the productivity.