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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 CO 2 Electrolysis to Multicarbon Products. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2023. [PMID: 37931009 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c11096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2023]
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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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed Nazmi Idros
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
| | - Yuming Wu
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
| | - Timothy Duignan
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
| | - Mengran Li
- Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage (MECS), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Hayden Cartmill
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
| | - Irving Maglaya
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
| | - Thomas Burdyny
- Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage (MECS), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Geoff Wang
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
| | - Thomas E Rufford
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
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Guariento A, Doulamis I, Duignan T, Kido T, Regan W, Saeed M, Hoganson D, Emani S, Matte G, del Nido P, McCully J. Mitochondrial Transplantation for Myocardial Protection in Ex-Situ Perfused Hearts Donated after Cardio-Circulatory Death. J Heart Lung Transplant 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.healun.2020.01.1319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022] Open
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