Selective Ethylene Production from CO<sub>2</sub> and CO Reduction via Engineering Membrane Electrode Assembly with Porous Dendritic Copper Oxide
Ngoc‐Huan Tran, Hong Phong Duong, Gwenaëlle Rousse, Sandrine Zanna, Moritz W. Schreiber, Marc Fontecave
Abstract
Gas-fed zero-gap electrolyzers have recently emerged as attractive systems for limiting ohmic losses and costs associated with electrolytes and for optimizing energy efficiencies. Here, we report that using a dendritic Cu oxide (D-CuO) material deposited on a gas diffusion layer as the cathode of a gas-fed zero-gap membrane electrode assembly (MEA) system results in a very selective conversion of CO to ethylene. More specifically, CO reduction yielded ethylene with an FE up to 68% at 100–125 mA·cm –2 with H 2 as the only other gaseous product and the electrolysis could be carried out for several hours with good stability. Ethylene was also the major product during CO 2 electrolysis (FE = 41%) at 125–150 mA·cm –2, reflecting the high selectivity of D-CuO for ethylene production. Such systems are relevant for tandem CO 2 electroreduction processes, allowing energy efficiencies above 30%.