Permanent Electrochemical Promotion for Environmental Applications

Introduction

Electrochemical Promotion of Catalysis (EPOC), or Non-Faradaic Electrochemical Modification of Catalytic Activity (NEMCA) effect, is a promising concept for boosting catalytic processes and advancing the frontiers of catalysis. This innovative field aims to modify both the activity and the selectivity of catalysts in a controlled manner. EPOC utilizes solid electrolyte materials as catalytic carriers. Ions contained in these electrolytes are electrochemically supplied to the catalyst surface and act as promoting agents to modify the catalyst electronic properties in order to achieve optimal catalytic performance. EPOC can be considered as an electrically controlled catalyst-support interaction in which promoting ionic agents are accurately supplied onto the catalytic surface by electrical potential control. The main advantage of EPOC is that the electrochemical activation magnitude is much higher than that predicted by Faraday’s law. Therefore, EPOC requires low currents...