The electrochemical reduction of CO2 is a pivotal technology for the defossilization of the chemical industry. Although pilot-scale electrolyzers exist, water management and salt precipitation remain a major hurdle to long-term operation. In this work, we present high-resolution neutron imaging (6 μm) of a zero-gap CO2 electrolyzer to uncover water distribution and salt precipitation under application-relevant operating conditions (200 mA cm−2 at a cell voltage of 2.8 V with a Faraday efficiency for CO of 99%). Precipitated salts penetrating the cathode gas diffusion layer can be observed, which are believed to block the CO2 gas transport and are therefore the major cause for the commonly observed decay in Faraday efficiency. Neutron imaging further shows higher salt accumulation under the cathode channel of the flow field compared to the land.

Dry cathode operation is a desired operation mode in anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzers, but water management is crucial. This is visualized using high-resolution neutron radiography and the ion-exchange capacity of the cathode ionomer is varied.

Salt precipitation in the cathode gas diffusion electrodes of zero-gap CO2 electrolyzers producing CO is a major challenge to the stability and durability of this technology. In this review, we...

The importance of electrical energystorage systems (EES), for a successful integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into the electrical grid is beyond dispute. [1][2][3][4] For mobile applications, lithium ion batteries (LIBs) with high energy density prevail. [2,5,6] Although many efforts focus on alternative chemical systems (e.g., multivalent Al, Mg, and Ca), it is hard to imagine that LIBs will disappear in the near future. [4,7] Yet, for large scale stationary EES, there is no such prevailing technology. Although other alternatives, like pumped hydro or fuel cells are available, batteries are amongst the most promising technologies for this purpose. [1,3,8] With the energy density being slightly less relevant, other redox active materials could be employed in large scale EES, i.e., redox-flow batteries (RFBs) with their very long cycle life and decoupled capacity, power and energy output. [2,9,10] Their benchmark is the allvanadium redox-flow battery (VRFB) with V II /V III and V IV / V V redox couples, [2] as well as a 15 000-20 000 charge/discharge cycles lifetime and an acceptable energy density of 25-35 Wh L −1 installed in up to 60 MWh capacity EES. [2,6] However, probably due to the high cost, a commercial breakthrough still has to come. [2,6,9] Considering abundancy and cost, few elements are suitable as redox active material in sustainable batteries. [4,11] Manganese is one of them and, therefore, finds application in LIB-cathode active materials (e.g., LiMn 2 O 4 or Li[Ni 0.8 Co 0.1 Mn 0.1 ]O 2 ) or in cathode materials of primary batteries (MnO 2 ). [5,12] However, to the best of our knowledge, only one battery system exclusively using manganese compounds at both electrodes is described, [13] i.e., Mn(acac) 3 acetonitrile (MeCN) solutions with the Mn II /Mn III couple at the negative and the Mn III /Mn IV couple at the positive electrode. Yet, with E cell of 1.1 V the system does not exploit the large potential range advantage of a non-aqueous electrolyte. Already the aqueous standard potential difference ΔE 0 of Mn 0 /Mn II and Mn II /Mn III redox couples amounts to an impressive 2.69 V. In addition, the Mn volumetric specific capacity is 7034.7 Ah L −1 (two-electron-process). It clearly exceeds that of zinc (5853.8 Ah L −1 ), which in the zinc A new all-Manganese flow battery (all-MFB) as a non-aqueous hybrid redox-flow battery is reported. The discharged active material [Cat] 2 [Mn II Cl 4 ] (Cat = organic cation) utilized in both half-cells supports a long cycle life. The reversible oxidation of [Mn II Cl 4 ] 2− to [Mn III Cl 5 ] 2− at the positive electrode and manganese metal deposition from [Mn II Cl 4 ] 2− at the negative electrode give a cell voltage of 2.59 V. Suitable electrolytes are prepared and optimized, followed by a characterization in static battery cells and in a pumped flow-cell. Several electrode materials, solvents, and membranes are tested for their feasibility in the all-MFB. An electrolyte consisting of [EMP] 2 [MnCl 4 ] and some solvent γ-butyrolactone is cycle...

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 is a pivotal technology for the defossilization of the chemical industry. Although first pilot-scale electrolyzers exist, water management and salt precipitation remain a major hurdle to long-term operation. In this work, we present the first high resolution neutron imaging (6 µm) of a zero-gap CO2 electrolyzer to uncover water distribution and salt precipitation under application-relevant operating conditions (200 mA cm− 2 at 2.8 V with a Faraday efficiency for CO of 99%). Precipitated salts penetrating the cathode gas diffusion layer can be observed, which are believed to block the CO2 gas transport and are therefore the major cause for the commonly observed decay in Faraday efficiency. Neutron imaging further shows higher carbonate accumulation under the cathode channel of the flow field compared to the land. In fact, a higher local reaction rate under the land compared to the channel can be estimated from the gas bubble generation on the opposing anode side.