The effect of catholyte and catalyst layer binders on CO2 electroreduction selectivity
By Chen, Yingying; Wrubel, Jacob A.; Vise, Ashlee E.; Intia, Fry; Harshberger, Samantha; Klein, Ellis; Smith, Wilson A.; Ma, Zhiwen; Deutsch, Todd G.; Neyerlin, Kenneth C.
Published in Chem Catalysis
2022
Abstract
Summary Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) is an attractive technology for converting CO2 to value-added chemicals by using renewably generated electricity. This work combines both experimental and theoretical analyses to investigate the role of different catalysts (Ag/Vu and SnO2/Vu), binder materials, and catholyte compositions on the selectivity of a CO2 electrolysis cell to the two-electron CO2 reduction products CO and formate. As a complementary effort, a 2D multi-physics transport model was developed to elucidate the fundamental processes and species concentrations in the cathode components. It was shown that the selectivity of CO2 reduction to CO can change significantly when different catholyte compositions and binder materials are used, whereas the selectivity of CO2 to formate is relatively stable across the conditions studied. These insights can be used to inform decisions regarding the electrode development and system design in CO2 electrolyzers and ultimately contribute to scaling energy-efficient electrochemical CO2-reduction systems.