Acidic media enables oxygen-tolerant electrosynthesis of multicarbon products from simulated flue gas

Meng Wang, Bingqing Wang (), Jiguang Zhang, Shibo Xi, Ning Ling, Ziyu Mi, Qin Yang, Mingsheng Zhang, Wan Ru Leow, Jia Zhang and Yanwei Lum ()
Additional contact information
Meng Wang: National University of Singapore
Bingqing Wang: National University of Singapore
Jiguang Zhang: National University of Singapore
Shibo Xi: Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE2), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Ning Ling: National University of Singapore
Ziyu Mi: Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE2), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Qin Yang: National University of Singapore
Mingsheng Zhang: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Wan Ru Leow: Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE2), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Jia Zhang: Institute of High Performance Computing, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR)
Yanwei Lum: National University of Singapore

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Renewable electricity powered electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2R) offers a valuable method to close the carbon cycle and reduce our overreliance on fossil fuels. However, high purity CO2 is usually required as feedstock, which potentially decreases the feasibility and economic viability of the process. Direct conversion of flue gas is an attractive option but is challenging due to the low CO2 concentration and the presence of O2 impurities. As a result, up to 99% of the applied current can be lost towards the undesired oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Here, we show that acidic electrolyte can significantly suppress ORR on Cu, enabling generation of multicarbon products from simulated flue gas. Using a composite Cu and carbon supported single-atom Ni tandem electrocatalyst, we achieved a multicarbon Faradaic efficiency of 46.5% at 200 mA cm-2, which is ~20 times higher than bare Cu under alkaline conditions. We also demonstrate stable performance for 24 h with a multicarbon product full-cell energy efficiency of 14.6%. Strikingly, this result is comparable to previously reported acidic CO2R systems using pure CO2. Our findings demonstrate a potential pathway towards designing efficient electrolyzers for direct conversion of flue gas to value-added chemicals and fuels.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45527-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-45527-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45527-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().