Patent ID: 11905607
Assignee: THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
Field: Surface technology, coating (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C | IPC C

Claim 13:
14. A method for fabricating a pure-LO-fed membrane-electrode assembly electrolysis system for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethylene and C2+ compounds with at least 1000-hour lifetime, comprising:
providing a step-facet-rich copper catalyst, wherein the step-facet-rich copper catalyst has a surface atom coordination number of 7 or lower at Cu (111) exposed facet;
preparing a step-facet-rich copper catalyst-containing ink composition for forming a cathode with the step-facet-rich copper catalyst thereon;
forming the cathode with the step-facet-rich copper catalyst thereon;
preparing an anode-forming mixture for forming an anode;
forming the anode from the anode-forming mixture supporting an anode material;
providing an alkaline anion exchange membrane and an acidic proton exchange membrane between said cathode and anode, the alkaline anion exchange membrane being arranged in contact with the cathode, the acidic proton exchange membrane being arranged in contact with the anode, and the alkaline exchange membrane and acidic proton exchange membrane being in contact with each other, thereby forming a multi-layered structure of the membrane-electrode assembly;
sandwiching one or more of the membrane-electrode assemblies with two conductive substrates;
feeding, pure H2O as an electrolyte into a container containing the one or more of the membrane-electrode assemblies being sandwiched between the two conductive substrates;
providing a power supply to the one or more of the membrane-electrode assemblies through the two conductive substrates;
maintaining the electrolyte at a temperature sufficient for the electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethylene to last for at least 1000 hours with no dominant hydrogen evolution reaction.