Optimized manufacturing of gas diffusion electrodes for CO2 electroreduction with automatic spray pyrolysis

Abstract

Despite being one of the most promising CO2 utilization strategies some aspects still hinder the scaling up of CO2 electroreduction processes. One of them is the fabrication of the electrodes, which is currently rudimentary and depends fundamentally on the human factor. Here, we report an automated spray pyrolysis technique coupled with a plasma surface treatment to fabricate Bi-based gas diffusion electrodes for a enhanced CO2 electroreduction to formate. Three fabrication parameters, namely i) spraying nozzle height, ii) step distance, and iii) ink flow rate, are evaluated to determine the optimal fabrication conditions. The results confirm the reproducibility of the fabrication method, improving the overall performance of the electrodes fabricated with a manual airbrushing method, and leading to formate rates of up to 10.1 mmol m-2 s-1 at 200 mA cm-2. Besides, plasma treatment can improve formate concentration by up to 12 % in comparison with the untreated electrode. As a result, this work provides novel insights into the development of more efficient methods to manufacture electrodes for CO2 electroreduction, which will eventually bring this technology closer to an industrial scale.