Operando Topography and Mechanical Property Mapping of CO2Reduction Gas-Diffusion Electrodes Operating at High Current Densities
Nathan T. Nesbitt (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, TU Delft - Emerging Materials, TU Delft - ChemE/Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage)
W.A. Smith (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, TU Delft - ChemE/Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage, TU Delft - Emerging Materials, University of Colorado)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Electrochemical atomic force microscopy (EC-AFM) enables measurement of electrode topography and mechanical properties during electrochemical reactions. However, for aqueous-based reactions that make gas products, such as CO2 reduction and water splitting into CO/H2, current densities below 1 mA cm-2 have been necessary to prevent formation of bubbles at the electrode; such bubbles can stick to the AFM probe and prevent further AFM imaging. Here, we demonstrate a novel cell design with a gas-diffusion electrode (GDE) to exhaust the gas products, thereby enabling high current density EC-AFM measurements at 1, 10, and 100 mA cm-2 that are not disturbed by bubble formation at the electrode surface. These experiments revealed a stable morphological structure of Cu catalysts deposited on GDEs during high current density operation. Systematic spatially resolved maps of deformation and adhesion showed no signs of a gas-liquid interface between catalyst particles of the GDE.
help_outline