Scalability and stability in CO2 reduction via tomography-guided system design

O'Brien CP, McLaughlin D, Böhm T, Xiao YC, Edwards JP, Gabardo CM, Bierling M, Wicks J, Sedighian Rasouli A, Abed J, Young D, Dinh CT, Sargent EH, Thiele S, Sinton D (2024)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2024

Journal

Joule Elsevier

DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2024.07.004

Abstract

Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction offers a means to produce value-added multi-carbon products and mitigate CO2 emissions. However, the stability of CO2 electrolyzers for C2+ products has not exceeded 200 h—well below that of CO- and H2-producing electrolyzers—and the most stable systems employ low-conductivity substrates incompatible with scale. Current gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) become filled with salt precipitate and electrolyte, which limits CO2 availability at the catalyst beyond 30 h. We develop a GDE architecture that is resistant to flooding and maintains stable performance for >400 h. Using a combination of focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy, micro-computed tomography, and a purpose-built array tomography technique, we determine that the enhanced stability is due to a percolating network of polytetrafluoroethylene in the microporous layer that retains hydrophobicity. We scale this approach in an 800 cm2 cell and an 8,000 cm2 stack and transfer >108 C, the largest reported CO2 electrolysis demonstration.

Involved external institutions

University of Toronto CA Canada (CA) Forschungszentrum Jülich / Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

O'Brien, C.P., McLaughlin, D., Böhm, T., Xiao, Y.C., Edwards, J.P., Gabardo, C.M.,... Sinton, D. (2024). Scalability and stability in CO2 reduction via tomography-guided system design. Joule. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2024.07.004

MLA:

O'Brien, Colin P., et al. "Scalability and stability in CO2 reduction via tomography-guided system design." Joule (2024).

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