Tunable CO2 electroreduction to ethanol and ethylene with controllable interfacial wettability

Yan Lin, Tuo Wang, Lili Zhang, Gong Zhang, Lulu Li, Qingfeng Chang, Zifan Pang, Hui Gao, Kai Huang, Peng Zhang, Zhi-Jian Zhao, Chunlei Pei and Jinlong Gong ()
Additional contact information
Yan Lin: Tianjin University
Tuo Wang: Tianjin University
Lili Zhang: Tianjin University
Gong Zhang: Tianjin University
Lulu Li: Tianjin University
Qingfeng Chang: Tianjin University
Zifan Pang: Tianjin University
Hui Gao: Tianjin University
Kai Huang: Tianjin University
Peng Zhang: Tianjin University
Zhi-Jian Zhao: Tianjin University
Chunlei Pei: Tianjin University
Jinlong Gong: Tianjin University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract The mechanism of how interfacial wettability impacts the CO2 electroreduction pathways to ethylene and ethanol remains unclear. This paper describes the design and realization of controllable equilibrium of kinetic-controlled *CO and *H via modifying alkanethiols with different alkyl chain lengths to reveal its contribution to ethylene and ethanol pathways. Characterization and simulation reveal that the mass transport of CO2 and H2O is related with interfacial wettability, which may result in the variation of kinetic-controlled *CO and *H ratio, which affects ethylene and ethanol pathways. Through modulating the hydrophilic interface to superhydrophobic interface, the reaction limitation shifts from insufficient supply of kinetic-controlled *CO to that of *H. The ethanol to ethylene ratio can be continuously tailored in a wide range from 0.9 to 1.92, with remarkable Faradaic efficiencies toward ethanol and multi-carbon (C2+) products up to 53.7% and 86.1%, respectively. A C2+ Faradaic efficiency of 80.3% can be achieved with a high C2+ partial current density of 321 mA cm−2, which is among the highest selectivity at such current densities.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39351-2 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:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-39351-2

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39351-2

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 ().