Mathematical model of diffusion processes in electrocatalytic processing of CO2 in organic compounds

Modern society emits a large number of various chemical substances into the ambient air. One of these compounds is carbon dioxide. Millions of tons are thrown away every year, and this pace is not decreasing. All these problems could be solved if an efficient way to use carbon dioxide as a source of carbon in the production of fuel and chemical raw materials is found. The conversion of CO₂ into value-added chemicals and energy sources is considered to be one of the four priority areas of economic development in different countries. Electrocatalytic processing of CO₂ into organic compounds can be used as one of such directions of processing. A peculiarity of this method consists in the use of low-temperature plasma barrier discharge in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst. An important component of this method is diffusion processes on the catalyst surface, which after a short period of existence of some compounds are best investigated using a mathematical model. Therefore, a mathematical model of diffusion processes on the catalyst surface during electroncatalytic CO₂ processing has been compiled and solved. Analyzing each individual diffusion parameter, we have found that: when the field strength is applied, the diffusion coefficient increases several times;- the action of the field strength causes all the studied compounds to move in a direction along the vectors of the electromagnetic field. The greatest is the velocity of atomic oxygen and hydrogen; the value of the total volumetric coefficient of mass transfer is not significantly affected by the superposition of tension, and the available difference is a few percent. This does not apply to hydrogen, oxygen and CO atoms; the rate of mass transfer to atomic oxygen is higher, other compounds do not significantly increase the rate of mass transfer