Metal-organic Framework Mediated Electrode Engineering for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

The electrochemical conversion of CO2 constitutes an interesting pathway to close the anthropogenic carbon cycles. The ability to reach stable operation in short time makes this method a perfect candidate to buffer the intermittency of renewable power sources, such as solar cells and wind power. As is the case of heterogeneous catalysis, the key to commercialize a process lies in the optimization of the catalytic phase. In this thesis, we take advantage of the unique properties of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to synthesize efficient catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2ER). Specifically, the two properties we utilize are the atomic dispersion of the elements and the highly designable building blocks (Chapter 1)....