Nonconductive porous polymer substrates, such as PTFE, have been pivotal in the fabrication of stable and high-performing gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for the reduction of CO₂/CO in small scale electrolyzers; however, the scale-up of polymer-based GDEs without performance penalties to technologically more relevant electrode sizes has remained elusive. This work reports on a new current collector concept that enables the scale-up of PTFE-based GDEs from 5 to 100 cm² and beyond. The present approach builds on a multifunctional current collector concept that enables multipoint front-contacting of thin catalyst coatings, which mitigates performance losses even for high resistivity cathodes. Our improved current collector design concomitantly incorporates a flow-field functionality in a monopolar plate configuration, keeping electrolyte gaps small for increased performance. Experiments with 100 cm² cathodes were conducted in a one-gap alkaline AEM and acid CEM system. Our design represents an important step forward in the development of larger-size CO₂ electrolyzers.

中文翻译：

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使用电解质集成聚合物涂层集电器方法放大 PTFE 基气体扩散电极

非导电多孔聚合物基材（例如 PTFE）在制造稳定且高性能的气体扩散电极（GDE）以减少小型电解槽中的CO ₂ /CO 方面发挥着关键作用；然而，在不影响性能的情况下将基于聚合物的 GDE 扩大到技术上更相关的电极尺寸仍然难以实现。这项工作报告了一种新的集电器概念，该概念能够将基于 PTFE 的 GDE 从 5 扩大到 100 cm ²甚至更大。本方法建立在多功能集电器概念的基础上，该概念能够实现薄催化剂涂层的多点正面接触，即使对于高电阻率阴极也可以减轻性能损失。我们改进的集电器设计同时在单极板配置中融入了流场功能，保持电解质间隙较小，以提高性能。在单间隙碱性AEM和酸性CEM系统中进行了100cm ²阴极的实验。我们的设计代表了开发大型CO ₂电解槽的重要一步。