Elucidation of Critical Catalyst Layer Phenomena toward High Production Rates for the Electrochemical Conversion of CO to Ethylene

This work utilizes EIS to elucidate the impact of catalyst-ionomer interactions and cathode hydroxide ion transport resistance (RCL, OH-) on cell voltage and product selectivity for the electrochemical conversion of CO to ethylene. When using the same Cu catalyst and a Nafion ionomer, varying ink dispersion and electrode deposition methods results in a change of 2 orders of magnitude for RCL, OH- and ca. a 25% change in electrode porosity. Decreasing RCL, OH- results in improved ethylene Faradaic efficiency (FE), up to similar to 57%, decrease in hydrogen FE, by similar to 36%, and reduction in cell voltage by up to 1 V at 700 mA/cm2. Through the optimization of electrode fabrication conditions, we achieve a maximum of 48% ethylene with >90% FE for nonhydrogen products in a 25 cm2 membrane electrode assembly at 700 mA/cm2 and <3 V. Additionally, the implications of optimizing RCL, OH- is translated to other material requirements, such as anode porosity. We find that the best performing electrodes use ink dispersion and deposition techniques that project well into roll-to-roll processes, demonstrating the scalability of the optimized process.