The promise and challenge of electrochemical mitigation of CO2 calls for innovations on both catalyst and reactor levels. Enabled by our high-performance and earth-abundant CO2 electroreduction catalyst materials, we have developed alkaline micro-flow electrolytic cells for energy-efficient, selective, fast and durable CO2 conversion to CO and HCOO-. With a cobalt phthalocyanine-based cathode catalyst, the CO-selective cell starts to operate at a 0.26 V overpotential and reaches a Faradaic efficiency of 94% and a partial current density of 31 mA/cm2 at a 0.56 V overpotential. With a SnO2-based cathode catalyst, the HCOO--selective cell starts to operate at a 0.76 V overpotential and reaches a Faradaic efficiency of 82% and a partial current density of 113 mA/cm2 at a 1.36 V overpotential. In contrast to previous studies, we found that the overpotential reduction from using the alkaline electrolyte is mostly contributed by a pH gradient near the cathode surface.

High performance electrochemical CO2 reduction cells based on non-noble metal catalysts

2019 Fall National Meeting

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