Recent advances on carbon capture and electrochemical CO2 reduction with amphiphile surfactants and polymers

Reducing the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere is the key issue in mitigating global warming and climate change, and there is an urgent need to develop carbon capture and conversion (CCC) technology. Amphiphile surfactants and polymers, as the widely used phase-transfer catalysts, can reduce the surface tension of aqueous solution and construct a double charge layer on the surface of solid electrodes, promoting the gasliquid-solid three-phase interface transfer of CO2 gas into electrolyte liquids and finally at the electrified electrode surface. From an electrochemical perspective, electrocatalytic CO2 reduction occurs in the nanoscale space at the charged electrode-electrolyte interface, thus the electrode interface microenvironment strongly affects the overall electrocatalytic activity and selectivity. In addition, cationic surfactants and polymers have selective absorption capacity for acidic CO2 gas, which has great potential in enhancing the catalytic activities as well as product selectivity towards CO2 reduction by suppressing the competing side reactions such as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this review, the progress, challenges, and prospects of using amphiphile surfactants and polymers for integrated carbon capture and electrochemical CO2 reduction are summarized.