Impact of the Carbon Substrate for Gas Diffusion Electrodes on the Electroreduction of CO 2 to Formate

Aiming to advance the technical maturity of CO 2 electrolysis to formic acid, various gas diffusion layers (GDLs) are investigated for their suitability as carbon‐based substrate for gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) and their effect on the electroreduction of CO 2 to formate. Particular attention lie...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:ChemElectroChem 2023-09, Vol.10 (17)
Main Authors: Theußl, Verena, Weinrich, Henning, Heume, Christine, Dzieciol, Krzysztof, Schmid, Bernhard, Kungl, Hans, Tempel, Hermann, Eichel, Rüdiger‐A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Aiming to advance the technical maturity of CO 2 electrolysis to formic acid, various gas diffusion layers (GDLs) are investigated for their suitability as carbon‐based substrate for gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) and their effect on the electroreduction of CO 2 to formate. Particular attention lies on the elucidation for the effect of the GDL thickness, hydrophobic treatment, and presence of a microporous layer (MPL) on the GDE performance in terms of Faradaic efficiency. Based on the investigation it is found that the GDL thickness has no discernible influence on the Faradaic efficiency, while a GDE with a hydrophobic treatment of 10 % PTFE outperforms a GDE based on a GDL with 30 % PTFE. Furthermore, the presence of a MPL is found to be of marked importance to achieve relevant current densities given its effect on the focus of the catalyst layer on the GDE surface after spray coating, the wetting, and the electrical conductivity.
ISSN:2196-0216
2196-0216
DOI:10.1002/celc.202300121