Effect of Dispersing Solvents for an Ionomer on the Performance of Copper Catalyst Layers for CO₂ Electrolysis to Multicarbon Products

To explore the effects of solvent-ionomer interactions in catalyst inks on the structure and performance of Cu catalyst layers (CLs) for CO₂ electrolysis, we used a “like for like” rationale to select acetone and methanol as dispersion solvents with a distinct affinity for the ionomer backbone or sulfonated ionic heads,...

Effects of microporous layer on electrolyte flooding in gas diffusion electrodes and selectivity of CO₂ electrolysis to CO

Understanding the relationship between gas diffusion electrode (GDE) structures and the performance of electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) is crucial to developing industrial-scale technologies to convert CO₂ to valuable products. We studied how the microporous layer (MPL) on GDE's coated with...

Mitigating Electrolyte Flooding for Electrochemical CO₂Reduction via Infiltration of Hydrophobic Particles in a Gas Diffusion Layer

Achieving operational stability at high current densities remains a challenge in CO2 electrolyzers due to flooding of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) that supports the electrocatalyst. We mitigated electrode flooding at high current densities using a vacuum-assisted infiltration method to embed 200-400 nm-sized polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)...

Urea-Functionalized Silver Catalyst toward Efficient and Robust CO₂ Electrolysis with Relieved Reliance on Alkali Cations

We report a new strategy to improve the reactivity and durability of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA)-type electrolyzer for CO2 electrolysis to CO by modifying the silver catalyst layer with urea. Our experimental and theoretical results show that mixing urea with the silver catalyst can promote electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2R),...

The role of electrode wettability in electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂RR) requires access to ample gaseous CO₂and liquid water to fuel reactions at high current densities for industrial-scale applications. Substantial improvement of the CO₂RR rate has largely arisen from positioning the catalyst close to gas-liquid interfaces,...