ILs, C
12mimCl (purity > 99%), BmimBF
4 (purity > 99%), BmimOTf (purity > 99%), BmimPF
6 (purity > 99%) and BmimClO
4 (purity > 99%) were purchased from the Centre of Green Chemistry and Catalysis, LICP, CAS. Organic salts TBABF
4 (purity > 99%) and TBAPF
6 (purity > 99%) were also obtained from this company. ZnCl
2 (A. R. grade),
KCl (A. R. grade), K
3Fe(CN)
6 (A. R. grade),
glycerol (A. R. grade),
acetonitrile (A. R. grade),
methanol (A. R. grade),
DMF (A. R. grade), metal foils (Au, Ag, Pt, Fe, Zn and Cu, purity > 99.99%) were provided by Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd, P. R. China. 1,3,5-Benzenetricarboxylic acid (H
3BTC, purity > 99%) were obtained from J & K Scientific Ltd. Toray Carbon Paper (CP, TGP-H-60, 19 × 19 cm) and Nafion N-117 membrane (0.180 mm thick, ≥0.90 meg g
–1 exchange capacity) were purchased from Alfa Aesar China Co., Ltd. Before used, the ILs were dried in vacuum oven at 80 °C for 48 h and the water content was less than 0.1 wt% as determined by Karl-Fischer method.25
Kang X., Zhu Q., Sun X., Hu J., Zhang J., Liu Z, & Han B. (2015). Highly efficient electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CH4 in an ionic liquid using a metal–organic framework cathode †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Fig. S1–S13 contain XRD, XPS, SEM, CVs, EIS, 1H-NMR, mechanism diagram and device diagram; Tables S1–S5 contain EIS data, electrolysis results in this work and in literatures and Tafel data. See DOI: 10.1039/c5sc03291a. Chemical Science, 7(1), 266-273.