Bipolar ethylene electrosynthesis from CO<sub>2</sub> and biowaste acid with total faradaic efficiency over 118.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41087358.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-64649-8 and PMC identifier 12521649.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Ethylene (C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>), a cornerstone of the chemical industry, is produced predominantly via fossil-intensive high-temperature processes that contribute significantly to global energy consumption and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Here, we report an ambient bipolar C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> electrosynthesis system that concurrently decarboxylates propanoic acid, a prevalent biorefinery waste, at nanoporous Pt microparticles-coated anode and reduces CO<sub>2</sub> at W-doped CuO<sub>x</sub>-loaded cathode. Physicochemical and operando spectroscopy characterizations, along with theoretical modeling reveal that the polarized Pt-PtO<sub>2</sub> interface formed in situ downshifts the d-band relative to Fermi level which favors the desorption of *CH<sub>2</sub>CH<sub>2</sub> intermediate to promote selective propanoic acid decarboxylation toward C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>. Remarkably, the resulting electrocatalyst couple delivers an unprecedented C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> faradaic efficiency (FE<sub>C2H4</sub>) of 118.7% and a large current density of 1000 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>, and sustains a FE<sub>C2H4</sub> exceeding 103.4% for over 265 h at an industrial current density of 400 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>, offering a promising pathway to carbon-neutral C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> production from waste feedstocks.