Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 12, Issue 10, Pages 12030-12042Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b21415
Keywords
artificial photosynthesis; solar fuels; CO2 reduction; ion exchange membrane; ionic conductivity; diffusion; electromigration
Funding
- Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy [DE-SC000493]
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
- RWTH Aachen University
- Excellence Initiative of the German federal government
- Excellence Initiative of the German state government
- European Union [69494 6]
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Efficient operation is crucial for the deployment of photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction devices for large-scale artificial photosynthesis. In these devices, undesired transport of CO2 reduction products from the reduction electrode to the oxidation electrode may occur through a liquid electrolyte and an ion exchange membrane, reducing device productivity and increasing the energy required for product purification. Our work investigated the CO2 reduction product crossover through ion exchange membranes separating the cathode and anode compartments in CO(2 )reduction cells. The concentrations of liquid products produced by CO2 reduction on copper foil were measured. A systematic approach for the investigation of product crossover was developed. The crossover of products was analyzed over a range of working electrode potentials (-1.08 V vs RHE to -0.88 V vs RHE) in cells employing a commercial Selemion AMV membrane and a new poly(vinylimidazolium) family of ion exchange membranes with variable chemical and structural properties. We found that product loss due to electromigration of charged species in the device was more significant than product loss due to diffusion of uncharged species. To reduce the crossover of CO2 reduction products, the influence of membrane properties such as the ionic conductivity and water volume fraction was investigated for the Selemion AMV membrane and poly(vinylimidazolium) membranes with variable material properties. We show that the water volume fraction and, by extension, ionic conductivity of the membrane may be controlled to reduce product crossover in CO2 reduction artificial photosynthesis devices.
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