Electrochemical reduction from carbon dioxide to urea through the application of a polycrystalline palladium electrode potential Square Wave Regime

Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Jerash University, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan E-mail: ahm9140096@fgs.ju.edu.jo, ahmad.alkawalda@yahoo.com Manuscript received online 12 October 2020, revised and accepted 10 November 2020 The electrochemical reduction of CO2 saturated in a 0.1 M NH3 solution for 4 h is very efficient into useful organic production. The substance resulting from electrochemical of CO2 reduction in palladium electrode was urea (CO(NH2)2) by application square wave potential, with optimized faradic efficiencies (FE) of 36.8 and 17.7%. In this proof-of-concept electrochemical CO2 reduction study, mechanistic details of the reaction paths are identified and suggested in the CO2 capture medium. The square wave potential rang lower and upper between –1.0 and 0.4 V with a 100 Hz frequency. Cyclic Voltammetry, UVVis spectrometry, Infrared spectroscopy, NMR, MASS spectra, TLC plate and TGA thermogravimetry were used to characterize the electrochemical system, analyzed and products formed. The results obtained from these techniques provided sufficient evidence that the product upon application of a square wave potential regime to a palladium electrode in a CO2 -saturated NH3 solution was urea. The conversion rate of CO2 reduction to urea is 3.85×10–5 mol/L.h.cm2