Coordination Polymer Electrocatalysts Enable Efficient CO-to-Acetate Conversion.
Mingchuan LuoAdnan OzdenZiyun WangFengwang LiJianan Erick HuangSung-Fu HungYuhang WangJun LiDae-Hyun NamYuguang C LiYi XuRuihu LuShuzhen ZhangYanwei LumYang RenLonglong FanFei WangHui-Hui LiDominique AppadooCao-Thang DinhYuan LiuBin ChenJoshua WicksHaijie ChenDavid SintonEdward H SargentPublished in: Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) (2023)
Upgrading carbon dioxide/monoxide to multi-carbon C 2+ products using renewable electricity offers one route to more sustainable fuel and chemical production. One of the most appealing products is acetate, the profitable electrosynthesis of which demands a catalyst with higher efficiency. Here, a coordination polymer (CP) catalyst is reported that consists of Cu(I) and benzimidazole units linked via Cu(I)-imidazole coordination bonds, which enables selective reduction of CO to acetate with a 61% Faradaic efficiency at -0.59 volts versus the reversible hydrogen electrode at a current density of 400 mA cm -2 in flow cells. The catalyst is integrated in a cation exchange membrane-based membrane electrode assembly that enables stable acetate electrosynthesis for 190 h, while achieving direct collection of concentrated acetate (3.3 molar) from the cathodic liquid stream, an average single-pass utilization of 50% toward CO-to-acetate conversion, and an average acetate full-cell energy efficiency of 15% at a current density of 250 mA cm -2 .