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CO2 electrolysis at industrial current densities using anion exchange membrane based electrolyzers

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Abstract

Significant progress on electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) has been achieved in recent years. However, the research and development of electrolyzer device for CO2RR is scarce. Here we use anion exchange membrane to develop zero-gap electrolyzers for CO2RR. The electrochemical properties of the electrolyzers with Pd/C and Cu cathodes are investigated. The Pd/C cathode shows a current density of 200 mA cm−2 with CO Faradaic efficiency of 98% and energy efficiency of 48.8%, while the Cu cathode shows a current density of 350 mA cm−2 with total CO2RR Faradaic efficiency of 81.9% and energy efficiency of 30.5%. This work provides a promising demonstration of CO2 electrolyzer using anion exchange membrane for CO2 electrolysis at industrial current densities.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFB0600901), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21573222, 91545202), Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy (DNL180404, DNL201924), Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DMTO201702), Dalian Outstanding Young Scientist Foundation (2017RJ03), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB17020200), and the CAS Youth Innovation Promotion (Y201938).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China

    Pengfei Wei, Hefei Li, Long Lin, Dunfeng Gao, Xiaomin Zhang, Huimin Gong, Guangyan Qing, Rui Cai, Guoxiong Wang & Xinhe Bao

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Pengfei Wei, Hefei Li & Long Lin

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  1. Pengfei Wei
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  2. Hefei Li
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  3. Long Lin
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  4. Dunfeng Gao
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  5. Xiaomin Zhang
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  6. Huimin Gong
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  9. Guoxiong Wang
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Correspondence to Dunfeng Gao or Guoxiong Wang.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The supporting information is available online at http://chem.scichina.com and http://link.springer.com/journal/11426. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Wei, P., Li, H., Lin, L. et al. CO2 electrolysis at industrial current densities using anion exchange membrane based electrolyzers. Sci. China Chem. 63, 1711–1715 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9825-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9825-9

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