Early-stage performance change of gas diffusion electrodes for CO2 electroreduction to formate

Verena Theußl; Henning Weinrich; Fabrizio Lisi; Hermann Tempel; Rüdiger-A. Eichel

doi:10.1039/D3SE01347B

Early-stage performance change of gas diffusion electrodes for CO₂ electroreduction to formate†

Verena Theußl,

*^ab Henning Weinrich,

^a Fabrizio Lisi,^a Hermann Tempel

^a and Rüdiger-A. Eichel^ab

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of Energy and Climate Research – Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52428 Jülich, Germany
E-mail: v.theussl@fz-juelich.de

^b RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Landoltweg 2, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Abstract

The electroreduction of CO₂ provides an intriguing technology for the sustainable production of value-added products from unavoidable exhaust gas emissions such as formate. Aiming at a suitable electrode architecture for the electroreduction of CO₂ to formate, in this study for the effect of the catalyst loading on the GDE performance, an early-stage performance change was observed by a loss of GDE activity in terms of maximum current density at −1.15 V_RHE. The loss of GDE activity was already apparent within the first hour of GDE use and points out the inadequacy of GDEs regarding the lifetime and stability in the field of electroreduction of CO₂. Based on the results of the present study, the loss of activity can be explained by agglomeration of catalyst particles and the loss of hydrophobicity.

This article is part of the themed collection: Recent Open Access Articles

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SE01347B
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 19 Oct 2023
Accepted: 10 Feb 2024
First published: 14 Feb 2024
This article is Open Access

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Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2024,8, 1483-1494

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Early-stage performance change of gas diffusion electrodes for CO₂ electroreduction to formate

V. Theußl, H. Weinrich, F. Lisi, H. Tempel and Rüdiger-A. Eichel, Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2024, 8, 1483 DOI: 10.1039/D3SE01347B

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