Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2023 Conference (MATSUSFall23)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.045
Publication date: 18th July 2023
This talk will analyze CO2 electrolysis from a device perspective to provide insight into what are the bottlenecks in the field and how to resolve them. In particular we will focus on our results using synchrotron based wide angle x-ray scattering to observe CO2 electrolysis devices in real time while concomitantly measuring anode and cathode product distributions. During higher current density (>100 mA/cm2) CO2 electrolysis devices are prone to cathodic ‘flooding’ leading to greatly enhanced hydrogen production. We show that during this degradatory issue there is chaotic oscillatory fluctuations in potential, and product distribution.1 By analyzing these fluctuations in the presence of a synchrotron, we can monitor salt deposition and even electrolyte penetration by a shift in the background scattering signal. From the comprehensive analysis we have developed a hypothesis of why we both see the oscillations as well as flooding. Interestingly, salt solubility and precipitation has a strong role in flooding issues.
We then analyzed various salts (Li, Na, K, Cs) of differing solubility while doing CO2 electrolysis.2 The synchrotron analysis clearly demonstrates the importance of salt solubility on stable operation. We then switched to CO electrolysis as this allowed for more soluble hydroxides compared to the carbonates used during CO2 electrolysis. While this allowed for more stable hydration management, it did corrode the anode, as evidenced by IrO2 appearing on the cathode. This was resolved by switching to a Ni anode, though long term acetate build-up caused pH issues. The acetate issues was resolved by simply removing the acetate from the anolyte during testing. This allowed for multiple tests with over 100 hour stability.3
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement
no. 851441, (SELECT-CO2) as well as the ECOEthylene project from Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 8057-00018B), the E-Tunneling grant from the Villum Foundation (project no. 36254), the Villum Center for the Science of Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals (grant 9455) and the CapCO2 grant (#1115-00007B) from Innovation Fund Denmark. We also would like to acknowledge the European Synchroton Radiation Facility (ESRF) for the provision of synchrotron radiation using beamline ID 31.
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