Chapter 10: Surface-selective and Time-resolved Spectro-electrochemical Studies of CO₂ Reduction Mechanisms

To enable the development of improved electrochemical systems for carbon dioxide reduction it is desirable to be able to rationalize the mechanisms of the current state of the art materials. Detection of reaction intermediates adsorbed to catalyst surfaces is challenging; requiring a high level of sensitivity (typically sub-monolayer) in addition to temporal resolution. This chapter addresses some of the recent developments in methodology that allow deeper insight into the CO₂ reduction mechanism, focusing on techniques that can provide either time resolution or surface selectivity to address short lived intermediates at the electrode surface.