Print Email Facebook Twitter Effect of Dispersing Solvents for an Ionomer on the Performance of Copper Catalyst Layers for CO2 Electrolysis to Multicarbon Products Title Effect of Dispersing Solvents for an Ionomer on the Performance of Copper Catalyst Layers for CO2 Electrolysis to Multicarbon Products Author Idros, Mohamed Nazmi (University of Queensland) Wu, Yuming (University of Queensland) Duignan, Timothy (University of Queensland) Li, Mengran (TU Delft ChemE/Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage) Cartmill, Hayden (University of Queensland) Maglaya, Irving (University of Queensland) Burdyny, T.E. (TU Delft ChemE/Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage) Wang, Geoff (University of Queensland) Rufford, Thomas E. (University of Queensland) Date 2023 Abstract To explore the effects of solvent-ionomer interactions in catalyst inks on the structure and performance of Cu catalyst layers (CLs) for CO2 electrolysis, we used a “like for like” rationale to select acetone and methanol as dispersion solvents with a distinct affinity for the ionomer backbone or sulfonated ionic heads, respectively, of the perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer Aquivion. First, we characterized the morphology and wettability of Aquivion films drop-cast from acetone- and methanol-based inks on flat Cu foils and glassy carbons. On a flat surface, the ionomer films cast from the Aquivion and acetone mixture were more continuous and hydrophobic than films cast from methanol-based inks. Our study’s second stage compared the performance of Cu nanoparticle CLs prepared with acetone and methanol on gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) in a flow cell electrolyzer. The effects of the ionomer-solvent interaction led to a more uniform and flooding-tolerant GDE when acetone was the dispersion solvent (acetone-CL) than when we used methanol (methanol-CL). As a result, acetone-CL yielded a higher selectivity for CO2 electrolysis to C2+ products at high current density, up to 25% greater than methanol-CL at 500 mA cm-2. Ethylene was the primary product for both CLs, with a Faradaic efficiency for ethylene of 47.4 ± 4.0% on the acetone-CL and that of 37.6 ± 5.5% on the methanol-CL at a current density of 300 mA cm-2. We attribute the enhanced C2+ selectivity of the acetone-CL to this electrode’s better resistance to electrolyte flooding, with zero seepage observed at tested current densities. Our findings reveal the critical role of solvent-ionomer interaction in determining the film structure and hydrophobicity, providing new insights into the CL design for enhanced multicarbon production in high current densities in CO2 electrolysis processes. Subject Aquivion conformationcatalyst ink formulationelectrochemical CO reductionperfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomersolubility parameter To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:44d2ba33-5e5b-473b-a131-6ecb16db9b24 DOI https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c11096 Embargo date 2024-05-06 ISSN 1944-8244 Source ACS applied materials & interfaces, 15, 52461-52472 Bibliographical note Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public. Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2023 Mohamed Nazmi Idros, Yuming Wu, Timothy Duignan, Mengran Li, Hayden Cartmill, Irving Maglaya, T.E. Burdyny, Geoff Wang, Thomas E. Rufford Files PDF idros_et_al_2023_effect_o ... or_co2.pdf 5.9 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:44d2ba33-5e5b-473b-a131-6ecb16db9b24/datastream/OBJ/view