加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学Berlinguette, Curtis P.团队报道了利用光学相干断层成像可视化CO₂电解。相关研究成果于2024年3月1日发表在国际顶尖学术期刊《自然—化学》。

电解装置为将二氧化碳转化为高价值化学品提供了一种极具吸引力的技术。然而，几乎没有可用的工具来跟踪电解装置内发生的反应。

该文中，研究人员报道了一个电解光学相干断层扫描平台，以可视化CO₂电解装置中发生的化学反应。该平台旨在以高空间和时间分辨率捕获三维图像和视频。研究人员记录了12小时的电解装置内录像，该电解装置包含由膜分离的多孔电极，在50–800mAcm^-2的电流密度下，将连续进料的液体KHCO₃转化为CO。

该平台可视化了反应物、中间体和产物，并捕捉到了阴极和膜组件在电解过程中惊人的动态运动。它还将CO的产生与电解装置中CO₂与膜层和催化剂层直接接触的区域联系起来。这些结果突出了该平台如何用于跟踪连续流电化学反应器中的反应。

附：英文原文

Title: Visualization of CO2 electrolysis using optical coherence tomography

Author: Lu, Xin, Zhou, Chris, Delima, Roxanna S., Lees, Eric W., Soni, Abhishek, Dvorak, David J., Ren, Shaoxuan, Ji, Tengxiao, Bahi, Addie, Ko, Frank, Berlinguette, Curtis P.

Issue&Volume: 2024-03-01

Abstract: Electrolysers offer an appealing technology for conversion of CO2 into high-value chemicals. However, there are few tools available to track the reactions that occur within electrolysers. Here we report an electrolysis optical coherence tomography platform to visualize the chemical reactions occurring in a CO2 electrolyser. This platform was designed to capture three-dimensional images and videos at high spatial and temporal resolutions. We recorded 12h of footage of an electrolyser containing a porous electrode separated by a membrane, converting a continuous feed of liquid KHCO3 to reduce CO2 into CO at applied current densities of 50–800mAcm2. This platform visualized reactants, intermediates and products, and captured the strikingly dynamic movement of the cathode and membrane components during electrolysis. It also linked CO production to regions of the electrolyser in which CO2 was in direct contact with both membrane and catalyst layers. These results highlight how this platform can be used to track reactions in continuous flow electrochemical reactors.

DOI: 10.1038/s41557-024-01465-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-024-01465-5