3D-Printed Copper-Based Gas Diffusion Electrodes with a Tunable Bilayer Architecture for Controlled CO₂...

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR) is vital for sustainable chemical production and climate change mitigation.
• Gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) are critical for CO2RR flow cells, but substrate limitations hinder copper-based GDE development.
• 3D printing offers potential for advanced GDE fabrication, yet remains unexplored in this context.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel 3D-printed copper-based GDE for CO2RR.
• To investigate the impact of structural modifications on electrode performance and product selectivity.
• To demonstrate the capability of 3D printing for tailoring GDE architecture in CO2RR.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a copper-based GDE using fused deposition modeling (FDM) with a tunable porous structure.
• Application of the 3D-printed GDE in a CO2RR flow cell system.
• Systematic variation of electrode layer thicknesses and infill densities to study their effect on CO2RR products.

Main Results:

• The 3D-printed GDE successfully operated in a CO2RR flow cell.
• Electrode solid layer thickness influenced H2 selectivity.
• Modifying infill layer thickness/density tuned C2H4 and CO selectivity.
• The S2I2 configuration (0.2 mm layers) achieved 47% C2+ selectivity at 200 mA cm-2.

Conclusions:

• 3D printing enables the design of architecture-tailored GDEs for CO2RR.
• Structural control of GDEs can effectively tune the product distribution of CO2 electroreduction.
• This approach holds promise for advancing commercial CO2RR applications.