Lithium-Mediated Nitrogen Reduction in a Flow Electrolyzer Cell Using Gas Diffusion Electrodes with Carbon-Based Electrocatalysts

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Due to the sluggish kinetics in activating the chemically stable dinitrogen (N2) and the competing hydrogen evolution reaction in aqueous media, recent attention in the field of direct ammonia (NH3) electrosynthesis has been increasingly drawn to the lithium-mediated N2 reduction reaction (LNRR) in tetrahydrofuran (THF)-based non-aqueous electrolyte. In particular, near 100% faradaic efficiency (FE) and/or a current density (j) of 100 mA cm-2 has been demonstrated with unique electrolyte (proton-shuttle additive) and/or electrode designs (expansive electrochemical surface area) in single-compartment cells at elevated N2 pressure (5 – 20 bar).[1,2]A submerged electrode leads to electrolyte flooding and restricts to N2 mass transfer to the electrode surface where electrodeposited Li as an electron mediator is available.[3] However, flow cell electrolyzers containing gas-diffusion electrodes can improve this technology to practical relevance, which features the LNRR on the cathode and hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) on the anode. Differing from single-compartment cells, the HOR supplements the ethanol additive (<1 vol%) as the proton source, which not only prevents the oxidative electrolyte degradation but also reduces the energy consumption due to a lower equilibrium anode potential (E0 = 0 VRHE). Gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) are used in the few LNRR studies with flow cell configurations, which are prepared by electro- or electroless depositing electrocatalysts (e.g., Pt [4] or PtAu alloy [5]) onto a porous substrate.In this work, carbon-based electrocatalysts (Vulcan XC72R carbon black, battery-grade conductive carbon SUPER C45, and graphitic carbon SFG6L) as low-cost alternatives to previously studied precious metals are assessed for their LNRR performance in flow cells using an HOR anode. In comparison to Vulcan-supported Pt, XC72R and C45 can obtain similar NH3 production rates (rNH3 )and FE at the same . Continuous LNRR at -3 mA cm-2 was demonstrated with linearly increased NH3 production for over 8 h without catalyst layer detachment, which was also verified with open circuit and Ar control experiments (Fig. 1). By presenting the LNRR activity with GDEs spray-coated with carbon-based electrocatalysts, opportunities for future research are suggested, such as novel carbon materials and porous substrates other than SSC for facile N2 mass transfer and Li deposition.