Human
activities increase CO2 concentration in the atmosphere,
causing serious global climate change. CO2 electrolysis
is a promising technology for removing CO2 and producing
valuable C2+ products, and its commercialization mainly
relies on the development of advanced systems with a fast conversion
rate, high conversion efficiency, and high product selectivity at
minimized overpotentials. In conventional systems, a CO2-dissolved aqueous solution is used as the reactant, which limits
the maximum current density to ∼35 mA/cm2 for products
owing to low CO2 solubility, thereby resulting in sluggish
diffusion of CO2 from the bulk electrolyte to the catalyst
surface. This problem can be solved by emerging gaseous CO2 electrolysis systems with gas diffusion electrodes that are capable
of accelerating the conversion rate with enhanced CO2 diffusion.
However, challenges exist regarding encountering performance degradation
owing to the local environment change in the system during operation.
This Perspective highlights the recent progress in gaseous CO2 electrolysis systems categorized based on the cell configuration
and the major challenges that must be overcome before commercialization
of this technology.
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