Benchmarking of commercial Cu catalysts in CO2 electro-reduction using a gas-diffusion type microfluidic flow electrolyzer

Abstract

In this work, three commercial Cu catalysts were benchmarked in the CO₂RR using a gas-diffusion type microfluidic flow electrolyzer. We showed that commercial Cu could deliver a high FE of near 80% for C₂₊ product formations at 300 mA cm⁻². By tuning the catalyst loading, a high reaction rate of near 1 A cm⁻² with a C₂₊ product FE over 70% was achieved. Our results demonstrated that commercial Cu could achieve similar or better performances compared to many current catalysts by design in the CO₂RR using similar electrolyzers. In addition, we showed that high CO reduction reaction (CORR) performance could also be achieved on commercial Cu, and disparities between CO and CO₂ electrolysis were discussed.