Understanding the Dependency of Electrochemical CO<sub>2</sub> Conversion on Polymer Ionomer Structure
발표자
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초록
내용
The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is a promising carbon-neutral technology addressing the climate crisis, achieving technoeconomic viability due to advances in catalysts, membranes, and electrolyzers. However, the role of ionomers in these systems is relatively underexplored. This study investigates the effects of ionomers on CO2RR performance and their structure-activity relationships. We prepared anion-conducting ionomers (AEI) with various functional groups (polycarbazole-based) and AEIs with different alkyl side-chain lengths of a specific functional group (imidazolium polystyrene-based). These ionomers were used as binders for Ag catalysts, and CO2RR was conducted. We evaluated the performance of ionomer-dependent CO2RR through physical and chemical characterizations of the ionomers and catalysts. Additionally, we demonstrate that optimized ionomers enhance performance in a practical membrane electrode assembly (MEA) system.