ELECTROCHEMICAL C-N COUPLING: AN IN-DEPTH STUDY FOR BEYOND UREA ELECTROSYNTHESIS FROM LAB SCALE TO INDUSTRIAL ELECTROLYSIS

• Grant number: 25/03256-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Physical-Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Lucia Helena Mascaro Sales
• Grantee: Manuel Edgardo Gomez Winkler
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Company: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Química (IQ)
• Associated research grant: 17/11986-5 - Generation and storage of New Energy: bringing technological development for the country, AP.PCPE

Abstract

Organonitrogen compounds (amides and amines) are of extreme importance nowadays due to their use in fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and starting compounds in fine chemicals. The increased demand for these compounds is reflected in a market worth tens of billions of dollars and growing in value, which requires sustainable and low-cost solutions. In this sense, electrochemical C-N coupling reactions have emerged as a promising technology for synthesizing chemicals such as urea, formamide, methylamine, acetamide and ethylamine. However, to date, little is known about the electrosynthesis of such compounds (apart from urea) in terms of catalytic active sites, reaction mechanism and the relationship between structure and electrocatalytic performance. Studies have shown that electrocatalysts derived from copper oxides (CuyOx) can be used for such reactions (including industrial-scale electrolysis), although their specificities are not well understood. This project aims to fill this gap by using Cu2O catalysts with preferential orientations (characterized by state-of-the-art techniques such as FIB/STEM-HRTEM, XANES, EXAFS, GIXRD) and hyphenated in situ (FTIR, XANES, EXAFS) and in operando (GC-MS, HPLC) electrochemical techniques to unravel the structure/electrocatalytic activity relationship of CuxOy electrocatalysts from various C- and N-feedstocks. Finally, this knowledge will be applied from laboratory-scale electrolysis to industrial current electrolyzers (>120 mA cm-2). In this way, this project aims to understand the phenomenon on the atomic scale and apply it to a scalable environmental friendly technology. (AU)