Direct air capture of CO2 in an electrochemical hybrid flow cell with a spatially isolated phenazine electrode

Xinyu Jin, Shijian Jin, Lu Li, Roy G. Gordon, Pan Wang (), Michael J. Aziz () and Yunlong Ji ()
Additional contact information
Xinyu Jin: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shijian Jin: Harvard University
Lu Li: Westlake University
Roy G. Gordon: Harvard University
Pan Wang: Westlake University
Michael J. Aziz: Harvard University
Yunlong Ji: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Energy, 2025, vol. 10, issue 9, 1146-1154

Abstract: Abstract CO2 capture based on a pH swing driven electrically through the reversible proton-coupled electron transfer of organic molecules could be powered entirely by clean electricity. A major technical challenge is the reversible chemical oxidation of the reduced organics by atmospheric O2, which can lower energy efficiency and capture capacity. Here we report the development of a hybrid phenazine flow cell system that uses a pH-swing direct air capture (DAC) process, utilizing redox-active cyclic poly(phenazine sulfide) fabricated solid electrodes. The system maintains a separation between the air and the O2-sensitive reduced phenazine, enabling stable and effective CO2 capture from gas mixtures containing O2. This flow cell demonstrated substantial oxygen compatibility, exhibiting a coulombic efficiency of 99% and requiring only 73 kJ mol−1 CO2 for simulated flue gas and 104 kJ mol−1 CO2 for DAC. The strategy of isolating vulnerable species offers an efficient pathway for DAC and may be broadly applicable to avoiding undesirable side reactions in other electrochemical devices.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-025-01836-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:natene:v:10:y:2025:i:9:d:10.1038_s41560-025-01836-3

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01836-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Energy is currently edited by Fouad Khan

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