scholarly journals Pulsed Electrodeposition of Tin Electrocatalysts onto Gas Diffusion Layers for Carbon Dioxide Reduction to Formate

MRS Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 451-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujat Sen ◽  
Brian Skinn ◽  
Tim Hall ◽  
Maria Inman ◽  
E. Jennings Taylor ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses a pulse electroplating method for developing tin (Sn)-decorated gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to formate. The pulse-plated Sn electrodes achieved current densities up to 388 mA/cm2, more than two-fold greater than conventionally prepared electrodes (150 mA/cm2), both at a formate selectivity of 80%. Optical and microscopic analyses indicate improvements in deposition parameters could further enhance performance by reducing the catalyst particle size.

MRS Advances ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (23) ◽  
pp. 1277-1284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujat Sen ◽  
McLain Leonard ◽  
Rajeswaran Radhakrishnan ◽  
Stephen Snyder ◽  
Brian Skinn ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses a pulse electroplating method for preparing copper (Cu)-coated gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to hydrocarbons such as ethylene. Ionomer coating and air-plasma surface pre-treatments were explored as means of hydrophilizing the carbon surface to enable adhesion of electrodeposited material. The pulsed-current electrodeposition method used successfully generated copper and copper oxide micro- and nano-particles on the prepared surfaces. Copper(I) species identified on the ionomer-treated GDEs are presumed to be highly active for the selective generation of ethylene as compared to other gaseous byproducts of CO2 reduction. Conversely, copper catalysts deposited onto plasma-treated GDEs were found to have poor activity for hydrocarbon production, likely due to substantial metallic character. Of note, plasma treatment of an ionomer-treated GDE after copper plating yielded further improvements in catalytic activity and durability towards ethylene production.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Gruber ◽  
N. Ponath ◽  
J. Müller

A plasma polymerization process for preparing proton-conducting electrolyte membranes from tetrafluoroethylene and water is presented. They can be deposited on different substrates, e.g., gas diffusion layers or as barrier layers on other polymer electrolyte membranes. An advantage of the plasma-polymerized membranes is their lower methanol permeability due to their highly cross-linked structure. Methanol permeation measurements with 3M methanol solution exhibit methanol permeabilities which are by an order of a magnitude less than for Nafion® 115. The proton conductivity of the plasma-polymerized membranes varies from 10to160mS∕cm depending on deposition parameters.


Author(s):  
Yuzhou Zhang ◽  
Viral Hirpara ◽  
Virat Patel ◽  
Chen Li ◽  
Ryan Anderson ◽  
...  

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2967
Author(s):  
Adrian Mularczyk ◽  
Andreas Michalski ◽  
Michael Striednig ◽  
Robert Herrendörfer ◽  
Thomas J. Schmidt ◽  
...  

Facilitating the proper handling of water is one of the main challenges to overcome when trying to improve fuel cell performance. Specifically, enhanced removal of liquid water from the porous gas diffusion layers (GDLs) holds a lot of potential, but has proven to be non-trivial. A main contributor to this removal process is the gaseous transport of water following evaporation inside the GDL or catalyst layer domain. Vapor transport is desired over liquid removal, as the liquid water takes up pore space otherwise available for reactant gas supply to the catalytically active sites and opens up the possibility to remove the waste heat of the cell by evaporative cooling concepts. To better understand evaporative water removal from fuel cells and facilitate the evaporative cooling concept developed at the Paul Scherrer Institute, the effect of gas speed (0.5–10 m/s), temperature (30–60 °C), and evaporation domain (0.8–10 mm) on the evaporation rate of water from a GDL (TGP-H-120, 10 wt% PTFE) has been investigated using an ex situ approach, combined with X-ray tomographic microscopy. An along-the-channel model showed good agreement with the measured values and was used to extrapolate the differential approach to larger domains and to investigate parameter variations that were not covered experimentally.


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