Graphene Supported Tungsten Carbide as Catalyst for Electrochemical Reduction of CO2

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to useful chemical and fuels in an energy efficient way is currently an expensive and inefficient process. Recently, low-cost transition metal-carbides (TMCs) are proven to exhibit similar electronic structure similarities to Platinum-Group-Metal (PGM) catalysts and hence can be good substitutes for some important reduction reactions. In this work, we test graphenesupported WC (Tungsten Carbide) nanocluster as an electrocatalyst for the CO2 reduction reaction. Specifically, we perform DFT studies to understand various possible reaction mechanisms and determine the lowest thermodynamic energy landscape of CO2 reduction to various products such as CO, HCOOH, CH3OH, and CH4. This in-depth study of reaction energetics could lead to improvements and develop more efficient electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction.