Electro-reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) into formic acid using rotating disc electrode (RDE)

Abstract

This paper aimed to prepare tin as the cathode material in the electro-reduction of CO2 into formic acid using RDE and at the same time to characterize it. Tin was deposited onto the surface of a glassy carbon electrode from SnCl2 solution by electro-deposition with the used of RDE and potentiostat. Then the tin plated glassy carbon electrode was used in CO2 reduction process also through the help of RDE and potentiostat. RDE was employed to control the ions transportation to the cathode while potentiostat was a medium used for the tin deposition and also CO2 reduction phase. All experiments were conducted using cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry and also chronoamperometry. The graphs developed in the experiment showed the redox reaction occurred during the CO2 reduction. The main finding in this experiment was that the CO2 was reduced based on the cyclic voltammogram provided from the cyclic voltammetry experiment.