Scaled CO Electroreduction to Alcohols.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40436848.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-59180-9 and PMC identifier 12120069.
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Abstract
Electrocatalysis offers a promising route to convert CO<sub>2</sub> into alcohols, which is most efficient in a two-step cascade reaction with CO<sub>2</sub>-to-CO followed by CO-to-alcohol. However, current alcohol-producing CO<sub>2</sub>/CO electrolyzers suffer from low selectivity or alcohol crossover, resulting in alcohol concentrations of less than 1%, which are further diluted in downstream cold-traps. As a result, electrocatalytic alcohol production has yet to be scaled beyond the lab (1-10 cm<sup>2</sup>). Here, we reverse the electroosmotic drag of water using a cation exchange membrane assembly, enabling the recovery of over 85% of alcohol products at a concentration of 6 wt.%. We develop a multi-step condenser strategy to separate the produced alcohols from the effluent gas stream without dilution. Scaling up this approach to an 800 cm<sup>2</sup> cell resulted in an output of 200 mL alcohol/day.