Authors:

Rebecca Hurwitz

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About Paper:

CO₂ electrolyzers use energy from renewable sources to reduce carbon dioxide and produce valuable chemical products, including carbon monoxide, through an electrochemical reaction on the surface of gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs). Previously, drop casting or air brushing manually deposited catalyst layers onto gas diffusion electrodes, but this study uses emulsion electrodeposition to gain control over the morphology of metal nanoparticles. Emulsion electrodeposition is the process of reducing the metal salt precursor in aqueous nanodroplets to deposit nanoparticles on the electrode. These nanoparticles provide more surface area for the reduction of CO₂, acting as a catalyst layer. This work directly reduced platinum nanoparticles onto GDE surfaces from an emulsion to compare to standard catalyst layer preparation methods. The shape and size of the deposited platinum nanoparticles were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The emulsion procedure and electrochemical conditions were optimized to deposit platinum nanoparticles on carbon paper, and then this methodology was adjusted to deposit metal catalyst onto gas diffusion electrodes. To prevent flooding of the electrode, hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in the next-generation polymer based gas diffusion electrodes was employed. This study evaluated the use of emulsion electrodeposition to control metal nanoparticle deposition onto gas diffusion electrodes. It evaluated the performance of the CO₂ electrolyzer, via a probe Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in acid media. Cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry were used to compare the performance of the CO₂ electrolyzer with previous research.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

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Co-authors:

Rebecca Hurwitz