Abstract
Electrolyzers designed to convert CO2 into carbon products typically rely on a gaseous CO2 feedstock or CO2-saturated electrolyte. We show herein that aqueous HCO3- solutions can also be electrochemically converted into CO gas at meaningful rates in a flow cell containing a bipolar membrane (BPM) and a silver catalyst on a carbon support. Electrolysis upon a N2-saturated 3.0-M KHCO3 solution yields CO with a faradaic efficiency that is comparable to analogous experiment where the bicarbonate solution is saturated with gaseous CO2. This electrolytic process is made possible by reaction of protons, delivered by the BPM, with bicarbonate to form electrocatalytically active CO2. This reaction pathway offers the potential to use electrolysis to bypass the thermally-intensive step of extracting CO2 from HCO3- solutions generated in carbon capture schemes.
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