Effects of Substrate and Polymer Encapsulation on CO(2) Electroreduction by Immobilized Indium(III) Protoporphyrin

[Image: see text] Heterogenization of molecular catalysts for CO(2) electroreduction has attracted significant research activity, due to the combined advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. In this work, we demonstrate the strong influence of the nature of the substrate on the selectivity and reactivity of electrocatalytic CO(2) reduction, as well as on the stability of the studied immobilized indium(III) protoporphyrin IX, for electrosynthesis of formic acid. Additionally, we investigate strategies to improve the CO(2) reduction by tuning the chemical functionality of the substrate surface by means of electrochemical and plasma treatment and by catalyst encapsulation in polymer membranes. We point out several underlying factors that affect the performance of electrocatalytic CO(2) reduction. The insights gained here allow one to optimize heterogenized molecular systems for enhanced CO(2) electroreduction without modification of the catalyst itself.