Issue 9, 2018

Combined high alkalinity and pressurization enable efficient CO2 electroreduction to CO

Abstract

The electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO) is a promising strategy to utilize CO2 emissions while generating a high value product. Commercial CO2 electroreduction systems will require high current densities (>100 mA cm−2) as well as improved energetic efficiencies (EEs), achieved via high CO selectivity and lowered applied potentials. Here we report a silver (Ag)-based system that exhibits the lowest overpotential among CO2-to-CO electrolyzers operating at high current densities, 300 mV at 300 mA cm−2, with near unity selectivity. We achieve these improvements in voltage efficiency and selectivity via operation in a highly alkaline reaction environment (which decreases overpotentials) and system pressurization (which suppresses the generation of alternative CO2 reduction products), respectively. In addition, we report a new record for the highest half-cell EE (>80%) for CO production at 300 mA cm−2.

Graphical abstract: Combined high alkalinity and pressurization enable efficient CO2 electroreduction to CO

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Jun 2018
Accepted
21 Jun 2018
First published
21 Jun 2018

Energy Environ. Sci., 2018,11, 2531-2539

Combined high alkalinity and pressurization enable efficient CO2 electroreduction to CO

C. M. Gabardo, A. Seifitokaldani, J. P. Edwards, C. Dinh, T. Burdyny, M. G. Kibria, C. P. O’Brien, E. H. Sargent and D. Sinton, Energy Environ. Sci., 2018, 11, 2531 DOI: 10.1039/C8EE01684D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements