Electrochemistry is at the heart of any development in renewable energy technologies. Recently, it has attracted the attention of not only chemists, but also physicists, engineers, and material scientists with the main goal of creating sustainable innovations for a carbon-neutral future. One way to do this is to convert electrical energy into chemical bonds, producing the so-called dense energy carriers. In this talk, we will focus on the electrochemical reduction reaction of carbon dioxide and nitrate anion to the formation of high value-added molecules with great potential to be used as sustainable fuels. Special attention will be given to the direct correlation of understanding the fundamental aspects of the electrified interface and charge transfer kinetics with the transition to novel renewable energy technologies.
Prof. Dr. Raphael Nagao is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Chemistry at University of Campinas and head of the Laboratory of Electrocatalysis for Sustainable Energy Conversion (ElectroEnergy). Up to now, he has published 41 articles in scientific journals (h factor = 15 with 922 citations) and more than 80 contributions in national and international conferences. He is also the director of the Physical Chemistry Division of the SBQ and the secretary of the Brazilian Division of the ECS.