Zero-gap bipolar membrane electrolyzer for carbon dioxide reduction using acid-tolerant molecular electrocatalysts

Siritanaratkul, Bhavin, Forster, Mark, Greenwell, Francesca, Sharma, Preetam K., Yu, Eileen H. and Cowan, Alexander J. (2022) Zero-gap bipolar membrane electrolyzer for carbon dioxide reduction using acid-tolerant molecular electrocatalysts. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 144 (17), 7551-7556. (doi:10.1021/jacs.1c13024).

Abstract

The scaling-up of electrochemical CO₂reduction requires circumventing the CO₂loss as carbonates under alkaline conditions. Zero-gap cell configurations with a reverse-bias bipolar membrane (BPM) represent a possible solution, but the catalyst layer in direct contact with the acidic environment of a BPM usually leads to H₂evolution dominating. Here we show that using acid-tolerant Ni molecular electrocatalysts selective (>60%) CO₂reduction can be achieved in a zero-gap BPM device using a pure water and CO₂feed. At a higher current density (100 mA cm^-2), CO selectivity decreases, but was still >30%, due to reversible product inhibition. This study demonstrates the importance of developing acid-tolerant catalysts for use in large-scale CO₂reduction devices.

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Contributors

Author: Eileen H. Yu

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