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Nano Research 2023, 16(4): 4589-4595 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5067-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 12 October 2022

Proton antagonist membrane towards exclusive CO2 reduction

Show Author's Information Taishi Xiao1,  Yao Ma1,  Shicheng Zeng2,  Xiang Yao1,  Tong Ye1,  Hongbin Li1,  Wei Li1,  Zhengzong Sun1,2( )
Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
School of Microelectronics and State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Keywords:
CO2 reduction, membrane electrode assembly, proton antagonist
Topics:
Catalysis
Cite this article:
Xiao T, Ma Y, Zeng S, et al. Proton antagonist membrane towards exclusive CO2 reduction. Nano Research, 2023, 16(4): 4589-4595. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5067-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Membrane electrode assembly reactor offers great promise toward practical CO2 electrolysis. Unfortunately, traditional proton exchange membrane possesses strong acidic chemical environment, which facilitates undesired hydrogen evolution reaction. Here we report a proton antagonist strategy, through which the proton diffusion pathways have been severely impeded by Na+ cation to produce an alkaline-rich environment. With this new membrane electrode assembly, we can significantly suppress the hydrogen evolution and achieve a Faradaic efficiency of 95.7% for CO with 51.5% energy efficiency. In addition, our proton antagonist membrane outperforms the commercial anion exchange membrane in both conductivity and oxidation resistance lifetime, which are crucial for large scale electrolysis of carbon neutral chemicals.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Proton antagonist membrane towards exclusive CO2 reduction

Show Author's information Taishi Xiao1, Yao Ma1, Shicheng Zeng2, Xiang Yao1, Tong Ye1, Hongbin Li1, Wei Li1, Zhengzong Sun1,2( )
Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
School of Microelectronics and State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

Abstract

Membrane electrode assembly reactor offers great promise toward practical CO2 electrolysis. Unfortunately, traditional proton exchange membrane possesses strong acidic chemical environment, which facilitates undesired hydrogen evolution reaction. Here we report a proton antagonist strategy, through which the proton diffusion pathways have been severely impeded by Na+ cation to produce an alkaline-rich environment. With this new membrane electrode assembly, we can significantly suppress the hydrogen evolution and achieve a Faradaic efficiency of 95.7% for CO with 51.5% energy efficiency. In addition, our proton antagonist membrane outperforms the commercial anion exchange membrane in both conductivity and oxidation resistance lifetime, which are crucial for large scale electrolysis of carbon neutral chemicals.

Keywords: CO2 reduction, membrane electrode assembly, proton antagonist

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 15 July 2022
Revised: 06 September 2022
Accepted: 18 September 2022
Published: 12 October 2022
Issue date: April 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21771040, 62074043, and 11705152), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2017YFA0207303), the Yiwu Research Institute Program of Fudan University (20-1-04).

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