Affiliation:
1. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering University of Calgary 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary Alberta T2N 1N4 Canada
2. Department of Chemical Engineering Islamic University of Indonesia Sleman Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55584 Indonesia
Abstract
AbstractElectrification of the chemical industry has been considered an enabler for energy transition on a massive scale. In this context, carbon monoxide electroreduction (COR) to produce multi‐carbon (C2+) products is considered one of the forefront emerging technologies. The key challenge in COR comes from the excessive cation crossover to the cathode via electromigration and water diffusion, which limits CO availability and impedes product selectivity. Commercial anion exchange membrane (AEM) suppresses the electromigration of cations, however, suffers from water diffusion which facilitates cation crossover. Here, we tackled these problems emerging from cation crossover and water diffusion by directly depositing an ultrathin Nafion ionomer on the cathode (sputtered Cu) surface. Our approach enables full‐cell energy efficiency of 21 % for converting CO into ethylene (C2H4) at 100 mA/cm2 with over 200 hours of stable operation. We also exhibited record high energy efficiency for ethanol (C2H5OH) production with CO‐to‐C2H5OH electrolysis efficiency of 17 %. This approach to directly depositing ultrathin ionomer on the cathode to enhance system performance may benefit other electrochemical systems to overcome challenges associated with scalability, stability, and efficiency to produce high‐value chemicals.
Funder
Canada First Research Excellence Fund
University of Calgary
Subject
General Energy,General Materials Science,General Chemical Engineering,Environmental Chemistry