CO2 electrolysis to multicarbon products in strong acid

By J. Huang, Fengwang Li, A. Ozden, Armin Sedighian Rasouli, F. P. García de Arquer, Shijie Liu, Shuzhen Zhang, Mingchuan Luo, Xue Wang, Yanwei Lum and 6 more. Science, 2021

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Potassium helps CO2 compete in acid Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a promising means of converting this greenhouse gas into valuable fuels and chemicals. However, two competing reactions restrict the efficiency of this process. In base, much of the CO2 is trapped as carbonate before reduction; in acid, protons outpace CO2 at catching electrons from the cathode. Huang et al. report that a high dose of potassium ions can help to solve the latter problem. By concentrating potassium ions at the electrode, high selectivity toward CO2 reduction at high current in acid is possible, which the authors attribute to electrostatic stabilization of the desired adsorbates. Science, abg6582, this issue p. 1074 Concentrating potassium ions near the electrode enhances CO2 reduction in acidic electrolyte. Carbon dioxide electroreduction (CO2R) is being actively studied as a promising route to convert carbon emissions to valuable chemicals and fuels. However, the fraction of input CO2 that is productively reduced has typically been very low, <2% for multicarbon products; the balance reacts with hydroxide to form carbonate in both alkaline and neutral reactors. Acidic electrolytes would overcome this limitation, but hydrogen evolution has hitherto dominated under those conditions. We report that concentrating potassium cations in the vicinity of electrochemically active sites accelerates CO2 activation to enable efficient CO2R in acid. We achieve CO2R on copper at pH <1 with a single-pass CO2 utilization of 77%, including a conversion efficiency of 50% toward multicarbon products (ethylene, ethanol, and 1-propanol) at a current density of 1.2 amperes per square centimeter and a full-cell voltage of 4.2 volts.

Subfields: Catalysis, Process Chemistry and Technology, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0fb65b225fcde160bf991646ba4f72f8a6b714c5

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In Catalysis

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In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

  1. P. Strasser
  2. Karen Chan
  3. A. Varela
  4. B. Roldán Cuenya
  5. I. Stephens
  6. J. Rossmeisl
  7. M. Koper
  8. A. Bagger

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