IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-24936-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency and selectivity of CO2 reduction to CO on gold gas diffusion electrodes in acidic media

Author

Listed:
  • Mariana C. O. Monteiro

    (Leiden University)

  • Matthew F. Philips

    (Leiden University
    Avantium)

  • Klaas Jan P. Schouten

    (Avantium
    University of Amsterdam)

  • Marc T. M. Koper

    (Leiden University)

Abstract

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO is a promising technology for replacing production processes employing fossil fuels. Still, low energy efficiencies hinder the production of CO at commercial scale. CO2 electrolysis has mainly been performed in neutral or alkaline media, but recent fundamental work shows that high selectivities for CO can also be achieved in acidic media. Therefore, we investigate the feasibility of CO2 electrolysis at pH 2–4 at indrustrially relevant conditions, using 10 cm2 gold gas diffusion electrodes. Operating at current densities up to 200 mA cm−2, we obtain CO faradaic efficiencies between 80–90% in sulfate electrolyte, with a 30% improvement of the overall process energy efficiency, in comparison with neutral media. Additionally, we find that weakly hydrated cations are crucial for accomplishing high reaction rates and enabling CO2 electrolysis in acidic media. This study represents a step towards the application of acidic electrolyzers for CO2 electroreduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariana C. O. Monteiro & Matthew F. Philips & Klaas Jan P. Schouten & Marc T. M. Koper, 2021. "Efficiency and selectivity of CO2 reduction to CO on gold gas diffusion electrodes in acidic media," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24936-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24936-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24936-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-24936-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Haifeng Shen & Huanyu Jin & Haobo Li & Herui Wang & Jingjing Duan & Yan Jiao & Shi-Zhang Qiao, 2023. "Acidic CO2-to-HCOOH electrolysis with industrial-level current on phase engineered tin sulfide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Jiawei Li & Hongliang Zeng & Xue Dong & Yimin Ding & Sunpei Hu & Runhao Zhang & Yizhou Dai & Peixin Cui & Zhou Xiao & Donghao Zhao & Liujiang Zhou & Tingting Zheng & Jianping Xiao & Jie Zeng & Chuan X, 2023. "Selective CO2 electrolysis to CO using isolated antimony alloyed copper," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Hai-Gang Qin & Yun-Fan Du & Yi-Yang Bai & Fu-Zhi Li & Xian Yue & Hao Wang & Jian-Zhao Peng & Jun Gu, 2023. "Surface-immobilized cross-linked cationic polyelectrolyte enables CO2 reduction with metal cation-free acidic electrolyte," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Subhabrata Mukhopadhyay & Muhammad Saad Naeem & G. Shiva Shanker & Arnab Ghatak & Alagar R. Kottaichamy & Ran Shimoni & Liat Avram & Itamar Liberman & Rotem Balilty & Raya Ifraemov & Illya Rozenberg &, 2024. "Local CO2 reservoir layer promotes rapid and selective electrochemical CO2 reduction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24936-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.