Proceedings of Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MAT-SUS) (NFM22)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2022.082
Publication date: 11th July 2022
Electrochemical power-to-gas and power-to-liquid technologies are promising chemical energy conversion approaches to be coupled with intermittent renewable energy sources to balance the grid while utilizing cheap excess energy at peak times. Production of CO from CO2 reduction seems to be feasible even at pilot-scale, but the selective production of high-value multi-carbon products is challenging. CO reduction is a possible second step in the cascade electrochemical valorization of CO2. Gas-phase electrolyzers offer a suitable platform for this process, but the low solubility of CO still poses notable challenges. This can be tackled by tailoring the microenvironment of the catalyst particles.
Here we demonstrate that a commercially available polymeric pore sealer can be used as catalyst binder, ensuring a high rate and selective CO reduction. Under optimal conditions, we achieved above 70% Faradaic efficiency for C2+ products formation at j = 500 mA cm−2 current density. As no specific interaction between the polymer and the CO reactant was found, we attribute the stable and selective operation of the electrolyzer cell to the controlled wetting of the catalyst layer, due to the homogeneous polymer coating on the catalyst particles’ surface. These findings point out that polymers that form thin films on the catalyst surface (instead of forming nanoparticles that are incorporated among the catalyst particles, e.g., PTFE) might be suitable binders for CORR. In addition, sophistically designed surface modifiers are not necessarily required for CO electrolysis, hence the capital costs can be significantly decreased.
At the end of my talk I will discuss some general differences and similarities of electrochemical CO2 and CO conversion processes, mostly focusing on the role of the reaction environment, provided by the cell components and the cell architecture.
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