Conversion of CO2 into hydrocarbons by continuous flow electroreduction

This work presents the possibility to reduce electrochemically and in one step carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons (between 1 and 9 carbon atoms) and into ethanol. The main interest of this work is in the reaction mode, that is to say with a continuous flow of CO2, at ambient temperature and ordinary pressure, this having been never shown previously. Moreover, these soft conditions of reaction allow to control the energy supplies, and will allow in a near future to use the solar radiation for generating directly the protons and electrons required by the water dissociation. (O.M.)