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

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Idros, Mohamed Nazmi
Wu, Yuming
Duignan, Timothy
Li, Mengran
Cartmill, Hayden
Maglaya, Irving
Burdyny, Thomas
Wang, Geoff
Rufford, Thomas E
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2023
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Abstract

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, respectively, of the perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer Aquivion. First, we characterized the morphology and wettability of Aquivion films drop-cast from acetone- and methanol-based inks on flat Cu foils and glassy carbons. On a flat surface, the ionomer films cast from the Aquivion and acetone mixture were more continuous and hydrophobic than films cast from methanol-based inks. Our study's second stage compared the performance of Cu nanoparticle CLs prepared with acetone and methanol on gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) in a flow cell electrolyzer. The effects of the ionomer-solvent interaction led to a more uniform and flooding-tolerant GDE when acetone was the dispersion solvent (acetone-CL) than when we used methanol (methanol-CL). As a result, acetone-CL yielded a higher selectivity for CO2 electrolysis to C2+ products at high current density, up to 25% greater than methanol-CL at 500 mA cm-2. Ethylene was the primary product for both CLs, with a Faradaic efficiency for ethylene of 47.4 ± 4.0% on the acetone-CL and that of 37.6 ± 5.5% on the methanol-CL at a current density of 300 mA cm-2. We attribute the enhanced C2+ selectivity of the acetone-CL to this electrode's better resistance to electrolyte flooding, with zero seepage observed at tested current densities. Our findings reveal the critical role of solvent-ionomer interaction in determining the film structure and hydrophobicity, providing new insights into the CL design for enhanced multicarbon production in high current densities in CO2 electrolysis processes.

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ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

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15

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45

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Chemical sciences

Engineering

Physical sciences

Aquivion conformation

catalyst ink formulation

electrochemical CO2 reduction

perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer

solubility parameter

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Idros, MN; Wu, Y; Duignan, T; Li, M; Cartmill, H; Maglaya, I; Burdyny, T; Wang, G; Rufford, TE, Effect of Dispersing Solvents for an Ionomer on the Performance of Copper Catalyst Layers for CO2 Electrolysis to Multicarbon Products, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2023, 14 (45), pp. 52461-52472

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