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The Metrohm Poster Prize, a prestigious award established 31 years ago at the Electroanalytical Chemistry Conference (ELACH), continues to recognize outstanding contributions from early-career researchers in the field of electrochemistry. At the Electrochemistry 2024 conference in Braunschweig, Germany, three exceptional young scientists were honored with the prize.
Held under the theme “Global Thinking, Local Acting,” the conference brought together more than 500 participants from across the electrochemical sciences. It served as a dynamic platform for sharing the latest research, exploring emerging applications, and discussing innovations in key areas such as sensing, energy storage, CO₂ reduction, photoelectrochemistry, bioelectrochemistry, electrosynthesis, corrosion, electrochemical analytics, and electrocatalysis.
Metrohm Poster Award 2024 Winner
From more than 200 poster presentations, the three most outstanding contributions were selected by the poster committee, composed of members of the scientific panel. Each of the winning posters was awarded a prize of €500, which was presented during the official Award Ceremony.
This article presents the research of Dr. Nini Zhang from Ruhr-University Bochum. Together with her team she focuses on electrocatalysis for energy conversion processes, including CO2 reduction, nitrate reduction, hydrogen evolution, alcohol oxidation, and oxygen evolution reactions.
Meet Dr. Nini Zhang
Since 2023, Dr. Nini Zhang has been a member of the Electroanalysis and Sensors group at Ruhr-University Bochum. The group focuses on electrocatalysis for energy conversion processes, including CO2 reduction, nitrate reduction, hydrogen evolution, alcohol oxidation, and oxygen evolution reactions. Their research also encompasses micro- and nanoelectrochemistry, bioelectrochemistry, and in-situ as well as operando electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques.
Dr. Zhang earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology. Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher, she is primarily engaged in the nanoelectrochemical investigation of the CO2 reduction reaction.
Carbonull & EuroShift
Human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels for energy, industry, and transportation, are the primary drivers of rising CO2 emissions, accounting for 74% of global greenhouse gas emissions [1]. Since the pre-industrial era, increased CO2 concentrations have raised global average temperatures by 1.2°C, with polar regions experiencing over 5°C of warming, accelerating ice melt and sea-level rise [2]. According to IPCC (2022), global CO2 emissions reached 36.8 billion metric tons, with electricity/heat production (34%) and industry (24%) as the largest contributors [3]. These emissions intensify climate disasters, including extreme heatwaves, floods, and biodiversity loss, threatening food security and displacing millions annually.
To avoid catastrophic warming beyond 1.5°C, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is critical [4]. The European Union exemplifies this through the European Climate Law, which mandates a 55% reduction in net GHG emissions by 2030 (vs. 1990) and climate neutrality by 2050 [5]. Recently, the EU proposed a 90% emissions cut by 2040, emphasizing decarbonization across energy, transport, and industry while enhancing carbon sinks like forests [6]. These policies aim to balance remaining emissions with removals, ensuring permanent reductions through renewable energy adoption and carbon capture technologies.
Cu Alchemy: Electrocatalytic CO2-to-Chemical Revival
Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR) provides a sustainable route to convert CO2 into valuable multi-carbon products (C2+), such as ethylene and ethanol, supporting carbon neutrality efforts [7]. However, practical implementation faces challenges, including the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at high current density conditions, which reduces selectivity for CO2-derived products [8]. Most lab-scale systems operate at current densities below 200 mA/cm2 limiting scalability to industrial benchmarks (>400 mA/cm2).
Copper-based catalysts are uniquely capable of enabling C-C coupling for C2+ products generation. While advances have improved selectivity, achieving high C2+ yields at industrially relevant current densities remains difficult [9]. Optimizing Cu catalysts to suppress HER and enhance C2+ pathways under high current density conditions would align CO2RR with industrial needs. Progress in this direction could improve the economic feasibility of large-scale CO2 conversion, linking renewable energy integration with sustainable chemical production.
Multi-metallic Synergy Unlocks High-Density CO2 Conversion
To overcome the challenges of low selectivity and insufficient current density in electrochemical CO2 reduction, Nini Zhang and her colleagues at Ruhr University Bochum are pioneering the development of copper-based multi-metallic catalysts. Through an integrated approach combining in-situ spectroscopic characterization and operando mass spectrometry (DEMS) analysis, their mechanistic investigations aim to optimize the production of high-value C2+ products under industrially relevant high current density conditions.
These engineered multi-metallic systems demonstrate the promise for enhancing CO2RR performance, leveraging synergistic interactions among multiple active sites to achieve both catalytic activity and C2+ product selectivity [10]. Nini Zhang and her colleagues present a rational catalyst design strategy for CO2RR through a modified solvothermal synthesis of Cu-based CuxCeyAgy multi-metallic nanostructures. By exploiting redox potential disparities and galvanic replacement mechanisms, core-shell architectures were obtained across monometallic, bimetallic, and ternary systems. The optimized ternary composition demonstrated good C2+ production at a very high current density of -1 A cm-2, representing a record-breaking partial current density for C2+ products at minimal overpotential. Multi-modal in situ characterization - including DEMS for mechanistic profiling and Raman spectroscopy for intermediate detection - revealed critical structure-performance relationships. The synergistic interplay between constituent metals was shown to enhance *CO dimerization kinetics while stabilizing key reaction intermediates.
Multi-metallic Synergy for Sustainable Carbon Cycling
This research pioneers a sustainable pathway for carbon utilization by advancing multi-metallic catalyst design for CO2 electroreduction. The nano-level control of electronic/geometric interactions addresses the critical challenge of scaling renewable energy-driven carbon conversion, aligning with global carbon neutrality goals. By converting CO2 into value-added C2+ chemicals with excellent efficiency, it offers a fossil-free alternative for chemical feedstocks while mitigating emissions. The integrated in situ characterizations enable real-time monitoring of catalytic mechanisms and accelerating green material discovery.
References
[1] WRI. 4 Charts Explain Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Countries and Sectors; Washington, DC. https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors
[2] Our World in Data. CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Oxford, UK. https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions
[3] EPA. Global Greenhouse Gas Overview; Washington, DC. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-overview
[4] Oxford Net Zero. What is Net Zero? Oxford, UK. https://netzeroclimate.org/what-is-net-zero-2/
[5] European Commission. 2050 Long-Term Strategy; Brussels. https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en
[6] Carbon Brief. Q&A: European Commission calls for 90% cut in EU emissions by 2040; London. https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-european-commission-calls-for-90-cut-in-eu-emissions-by-2040/
[7] Y. Y. Birdja, E. P. Gallent, M. C. Figueiredo, A. J. Göttle, F. C. Vallejo, M. T. M. Koper. Advances and challenges in understanding the electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to fuels. Nat. Energy 2019, 4, 732–745. DOI: 10.1038/s41560-019-0450-y
[8] M. Zheng, P. Wang, Z. Xing, Y. Kang, Y. Jiao, J. Duan, Y. Zheng, Shi Zhang Qiao. Electrocatalytic CO2-to-C2+ with Ampere-Level Current on Heteroatom-Engineered Copper via Tuning *CO Intermediate Coverage J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144 (32), 14936–14944. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c06820
[9] M. B. Ross, P. De Luna, Y. Li, C.-T. Dinh, D. Kim, P. Yang, E. H. Sargent. Designing materials for electrochemical carbon dioxide recycling. Nat. Catal. 2019, 2, 648–658. DOI: 10.1038/s41929-019-0306-7
[10] Z. Chen, G. Zhang, H. Chen, J. Prakash, Y. Zheng, S. Sun. Multi-metallic catalysts for the electroreduction of carbon dioxide: Recent advances and perspectives. Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev. 2022, 155, 111922. DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111922
