Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2024 Conference (MATSUS24)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2024.275
Publication date: 18th December 2023
Low-temperature electrochemical CO2 reduction (ECO2R) is proven to be one of several promising strategies to valorise CO2 through its conversion into value-added products and fuels. In fact, it is the only alternative for the direct conversion of CO2 into ethylene, with Cu being the only metal exhibiting any selectivity and activity towards the conversion of CO2 to C2 products. However, developing functional materials as electrocatalysts and electrodes is imperative to achieve industrially relevant performances and efficiencies. In this sense, besides the necessary improvements in terms of decreased energy consumption at high current densities, it is important to improve the faradaic efficiencies towards desired carbon products, while hindering the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Gas-diffusion electrodes (GDE) based on carbon paper and cloth are the standard approach used in ECO2R; however, during operation, the surface properties (e.g. wettability) of such carbon-based GDEs might change, ultimately favouring the HER and, thus, affecting the efficiency of the process. As alternative, few examples proposing the use of PTFE-based porous structures on which metallic Cu layers are used as both conductive support and catalyst[1], have demonstrated to be a promising approach to avoid the use of carbon-based electrodes. In the context of SolDAC HE project, we have developed a systematic study on the deposition conditions of sputtered Cu on PTFE structures. Therefore, we have observed that these physical features have a significant effect not only on the electrical conductivity of the electrodes, but also on the ECO2R performance towards specific products. As observed, different pressure conditions during sputtering modify the texture of the surface and induce crack formation. This variation leads to different operation cathode potentials, that can decrease up to 400 mV at 200 mA·cm-2 in the electrodes with smoother surfaces, while the product distribution is also significantly affected by the current density on electrodes with varied physical properties. Faradaic efficiencies to ethylene >70% are attained with as-prepared GDEs based on Cu-PTFE, reaching excellent performance in electrodes of geometric areas of 10 cm2, after tunning the interface by modifying the electrode surface.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101069359.
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