Cornell scientists dust off 120-year-old electrochemical equation to boost CO2 applications

In New York state, to manage atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert the gas into a useful product, Cornell scientists have dusted off an archaic—now 120 years old—electrochemical equation. The group aims to thwart the consequences of global warming and climate change by applying this long-forgotten idea in a new way.

The calculation—named the Cottrell equation for chemist Frederick Gardner Cottrell, who developed it in 1903—can help today’s researchers understand the several reactions that carbon dioxide can take when electrochemistry is applied and pulsed on a lab bench.

Their work was published March 27 in the journal ACS Catalysis.

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide presents an opportunity to transform the gas from an environmental liability to a feedstock for chemical products or as a medium to store renewable electricity in the form of chemical bonds, as nature does.

In simple terms, the equation depicts a change in the measured electrochemical current over specific references to time during an experiment. What that means in a lab is that carbon dioxide is subjected to various applied potentials stepped up or down, or pulsed and these, in turn, generate a current that is related to the products formed from the reduction of carbon dioxide.