Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to Ethylene via a CuO Nanocatalyst with Focus on Long-term Stability and Scalability

Titelangaben

Jännsch, Yannick ; Hämmerle, Martin ; Moos, Ralf:
Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to Ethylene via a CuO Nanocatalyst with Focus on Long-term Stability and Scalability.
2021
Veranstaltung: International Conference on Electrocatalysis for Renewable Energy , 29.03 - 31.03.2021 , Online.
(Veranstaltungsbeitrag: Kongress/Konferenz/Symposium/Tagung , Vortrag )

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Abstract

Human-made CO2 emission is one of the key factors driving global warming. Thus, new and environmentally friendly technologies have to be established. Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR) powered by renewable energies is a promising concept allowing for closing the carbon-cycle. In recent years, advances have been achieved in the field of electrochemical CO2RR and novel, more sophisticated catalysts have been developed. Unfortunately, these catalysts are often difficult to synthesise, especially if scaling towards large amounts for practical applications is considered. We present the synthesis and evaluation of an easy to prepare copper (II) oxide (CuO) catalyst, as well as its use in an application-oriented flow cell reactor. Based on an aqueous solution of copper acetate, CuO nanoparticles were yielded through a basic precipitation method, based on literature. XRD analysis shows that a pure CuO phase was achieved; Rietveld analysis resulted in a crystallite size of approximately 7 nm. The catalyst was redispersed and dropcasted onto a gas diffusion layer. The resulting gas diffusion electrode was installed in a flow cell reactor (electrode area 10 cm²) in order to evaluate the CO2RR performance. When applying –200 mA/cm² galvanostatically, a decent selectivity towards ethylene with a maximum of 35% faradaic efficiency (FE) was achieved. The average FE over 20 h was 33%, indicating high catalyst stability. With increased current, even though the FE for ethylene dropped slightly, the partial current density going into ethylene production could be improved to values above 100 mA/cm². In summary, we present an easy to prepare catalyst for electrochemical CO2 reduction, which delivers decent selectivity towards ethylene production and shows good stability under operation in an application-oriented flow cell setup and operation mode.