CO2 ELECTROLYSIS

In Yan Vogel lab, our mission is to develop sustainable chemical routes that aim at replacing our highly polluting petrochemical industry. Our approach to addressing this challenge is advancing CO2 electrolysis technologies. CO2 electrolysis uses renewable electricity and carbon sourced from CO2 to produce a wide variety of chemicals. These systems have the potential to dramatically change our current linear flow of carbon into a sustainable circular carbon economy.

Diagram showing the process flow of fuel extraction, fules and feedstocks, utilization, emission, and electrolysis, with arrows indicating the process stages and the new paradigm in blue.

We actively research different methods to understand and predict the working principles underlying CO2 electrolysis to advance this technology. We develop spectroscopic tools to access the chemical environment inside CO2 electrolyzers during operation and advanced spectroscopic techniques capable of detecting reaction intermediates to multicarbon products. Ultimately, we use these mechanistic insights to convert CO2 with high activity, selectivity and stability.