Carbon dioxide is an abundant potential carbon resource on Earth, and it is also a greenhouse gas whose atmospheric concentration has increased sharply over the past two centuries Chemical fixation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an attractive technique for utilization of carbon resources, as well as for the reduction of the atmospheric concentration of CO₂. Carbon dioxide is a potential carbon resource abundant on earth. The electrochemical reduction of CO₂ is the conversion of carbon dioxide to more reduced chemical species. The first examples of electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide are from the 19th century, when carbon dioxide was reduced to carbon monoxide using a zinc cathode.
Research in this field intensified in the 1980s following the oil embargoes of the 1970s. CO₂ can be removed by the reduction that produces various chemicals, such as carbon monoxide (CO), methanol (CH₃OH), methane (CH₄), and formic acid (HCOOH). In our lab, we are mainly focused on the CO₂ reduction to CO using various metallic catalysts.