electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction in tandem with electro-oxidative synthesis of sulfa drugs

Abstract: the continuous increase in oil-based sources consumption has led to accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, causing serious harmful ecological and environmental effects over the last decades. co2 is considered the main gas responsible for climate change. at the same time, co2 is also a potentially useful carbon resource [1]. converting co2 to fuel provides a unique advantage that can be a dual-purpose way to remove co2 as well as produce value-added products. a broad spectrum of strategies is exerted to convert co2. among these, electrochemical approach has emerged as the greenest known methods providing a green, modern, and safe technique for achieving a diverse range of chemical conversions, as well as minimizing energy consumption [2]. however, co2 is a thermodynamically stable molecule, which makes it difficult to be reduced. therefore, a co2 conversion reaction requires high input energy and efficient catalysts to achieve greater efficiency. a more valuable study is to introduce a catalyst that is highly selective and leads to a significant reduction in energy demand for co2rr. on the other hand, the strategy of paired electrochemical synthesis, in which the reactions at both the anode and cathode simultaneously contribute to the formation of the final product(s), could result in as much as a 50% reduction in energy consumption as compared to conventional electro-organic syntheses [3]. herein, we describe a paired electrochemical synthesis for simultaneous co2rr with cobalt phthalocyanine@nitrogen-doped ordered mesoporous carbon (copc@n-doped omc) modified electrode in the cathodic part and producing of sulfa drugs in the anodic part. n-doped omc exhibits superior chemical and electrochemical performance as a result of their unique properties derived from the nitrogen lone-pair electrons [4, 5]. in this direction, n-doped omc was fabricated by the carbonization of ionic liquid (1-methyl-3-phenethyl-1h-imidazolium hydrogen sulfate) and guanine using hard templating with ordered mesoporous silica sba-15. the synergistic effect of copc and n-doped omc substances has increased the electrocatalytic activity of co2 reduction and the presence of nitrogen groups has resulted in a completely uniform distribution of the complex centers. the use of molecular catalysts with high activity and selectivity, in an appropriate cell configuration, leads to co2rr in tandem with electrochemical synthesis of sulfa drugs.