3D-printable gas diffusion layers promise improved performance in electrochemical reduction of CO2

Using carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to create value-added products is an attractive approach to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. Processes such as the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to ethylene and ethanol offer a pathway to producing commodity chemicals without fossil fuels when they are powered using low-carbon electricity. Gas diffusion electrode (GDE) assemblies can enable this transformation through rational designs that maximize selectivity and high production rates. However, the understanding of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) within these assemblies is limited for the CO₂ reduction reaction: particularly important, but incompletely understood, is how the GDL modulates product distributions of catalysts operating in high current density regimes.

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Toronto, have created the first 3D-printable fluoropolymer GDLs. These GDLs have a tunable microporosity and structure—systems that enable probing of the effects of permeance, microstructural porosity, macrostructure, and surface morphology. This work offers routes to improve CO₂ reduction reaction GDEs as a platform for 3D catalyst design.

This research was funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program (19-SI-005).

[J. Wicks, M.L. Jue, V.A. Beck, J.S. Oakdale, N.A. Dudukovic, A.L. Clemens, S. Liang, M.E. Ellis, G. Lee, S.E. Baker, E.B. Duoss, and E.H. Sargent, 3D‐Printable Fluoropolymer Gas Diffusion Layers for CO₂ Electroreduction, Advanced Materials, available online on January 14, 2021, doi: 10.1002/adma.202003855.]