Non-Invasive Current Collectors for Improved Current-Density Distribution During CO2 Electrolysis on Super-Hydrophobic Electrodes

Hugo-Pieter Iglesias van Montfort^a, Mengran Li^a^,^b, Erdem Irtem^a, Maryam Abdinejad^a, Yuming Wu^c, Santosh Pal^a, Mark Sassenburg^a, Davide Ripepi^a, Siddhartha Subramaniam^a, Jasper Biemolt^a, Thomas Rufford^c, Thomas Burdyny^a

^aDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Netherlands, Netherlands

^bDepartment of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Australia

^cSchool of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Australia

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2023 Conference (MATSUSFall23)

#CO2X - Frontier developments in Electrochemical CO2 reduction and the utilization

Torremolinos, Spain, 2023 October 16th - 20th

Organizers: Alexander Bagger and Yu Katayama

Oral, Hugo-Pieter Iglesias van Montfort, presentation 238
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.238
Publication date: 18th July 2023

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 presents an attractive way to store renewable energy in chemical bonds in a potentially carbon-neutral way. However, current electrolyzers suffer from intrinsic problems, like flooding and salt accumulation, that must be overcome to industrialize the technology. To resolve flooding and salt precipitation issues, researchers have used ultra-hydrophobic electrodes based on either polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) gas-diffusion layers (GDL’s), or carbon-based GDL’s with added PTFE. While the PTFE backbone is highly-resistant to flooding, the non-conductive nature of PTFE means that without additional current collection the catalyst layer itself is responsible for electron-dispersion, which penalizes system efficiency and stability. In this work, we present operando results that illustrate the poor current/potential distribution in thin catalyst layers (~50 nm) deposited onto PTFE GDL’s. We then compare the effects of thicker catalyst layers (~500 nm) and a newly developed non-interfering current collector (NICC). The NICC can maintain even current distribution with 10-fold thinner catalyst layers while improving stability towards ethylene (≥ 30%) by approximately two-fold.

References:

[1] Hugo-Pieter Iglesias van Montfort, Mengran Li, Erdem Irtem et al. Non-invasive current collectors for improved current-density distribution during CO2 electrolysis on super-hydrophobic electrodes, 30 May 2023, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2938282/v1]

Acknowledgements:

H-P.I.v.M. and T.B. would like to acknowledge Joost Middelkoop for the assistance in designing, plotting and printing parts for the windowed electrolyzer, Herman Schreuders for suggesting an approach similar to a ‘bus-bar’ electrode and help with sputtering catalysts, and Reinier den Oudsten-Grijzen for assistance in designing, milling and commissioning parts for the electrolyzer and the sputtering masks. Y.W. and T.R. acknowledge the facilities, and the scientific and technical assistance, of the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility at the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland

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