Anolyte Buffering and CO Coverage Effects in the Electrochemical Reduction of CO at Cu Electrocatalysts.

Electrolytic CO reduction was investigated at copper electrocatalysts in zero-gap membrane electrode assemblies as a function of buffering agents and cofeeding with CO2 or Ar. Results show an acetate Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 90% at 300 mA cm-2 using pure CO feeds and phosphate-buffered anolyte near pH 8. When using CO feeds with more alkaline anolytes, the hydrogen evolution reaction becomes the dominant reduction reaction, independent of the buffer. Product distributions of cofeeding experiments with CO and CO2 show that increasing CO2 cofeeding results in increased selectivity toward ethylene (42% FE) in near-neutral KHCO3 anolytes or ethanol (40% FE) in alkaline KOH anolytes. Evaluation of several commercial anion exchange membranes shows similar selectivity trends, suggesting product selectivity is dominated by the local pH and surface coverage of CO. Based on these results, we propose pH buffering and CO coverage behaviors that facilitate high selectivities to acetate.