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A CO2 electrolyzer tandem cell system for CO2-CO co-feed valorization in a Ni-N-C/Cu-catalyzed reaction cascade

Author

Listed:
  • Tim Möller

    (Technical University Berlin)

  • Michael Filippi

    (Technical University Berlin)

  • Sven Brückner

    (Technical University Berlin)

  • Wen Ju

    (Technical University Berlin)

  • Peter Strasser

    (Technical University Berlin)

Abstract

Coupled tandem electrolyzer concepts have been predicted to offer kinetic benefits to sluggish catalytic reactions thanks to their flexibility of reaction environments in each cell. Here we design, assemble, test, and analyze the first complete low-temperature, neutral-pH, cathode precious metal-free tandem CO2 electrolyzer cell chain. The tandem system couples an Ag-free CO2-to-CO2/CO electrolyzer (cell-1) to a CO2/CO-to-C2+ product electrolyzer (cell-2). Cell-1 and cell-2 incorporate selective Ni-N-C-based and Cu-based Gas Diffusion Cathodes, respectively, and operate at sustainable neutral pH conditions. Using our tandem cell system, we report strongly enhanced rates for the production of ethylene (by 50%) and alcohols (by 100%) and a sharply increased C2+ energy efficiency (by 100%) at current densities of up to 700 mA cm−2 compared to the single CO2-to-C2+ electrolyzer cell system approach. This study demonstrates that coupled tandem electrolyzer cell systems can offer kinetic and practical energetic benefits over single-cell designs for the production of value-added C2+ chemicals and fuels directly from CO2 feeds without intermediate separation or purification.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Möller & Michael Filippi & Sven Brückner & Wen Ju & Peter Strasser, 2023. "A CO2 electrolyzer tandem cell system for CO2-CO co-feed valorization in a Ni-N-C/Cu-catalyzed reaction cascade," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-41278-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41278-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Miao Zhong & Kevin Tran & Yimeng Min & Chuanhao Wang & Ziyun Wang & Cao-Thang Dinh & Phil De Luna & Zongqian Yu & Armin Sedighian Rasouli & Peter Brodersen & Song Sun & Oleksandr Voznyy & Chih-Shan Ta, 2020. "Accelerated discovery of CO2 electrocatalysts using active machine learning," Nature, Nature, vol. 581(7807), pages 178-183, May.
    2. Christina W. Li & Jim Ciston & Matthew W. Kanan, 2014. "Electroreduction of carbon monoxide to liquid fuel on oxide-derived nanocrystalline copper," Nature, Nature, vol. 508(7497), pages 504-507, April.
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