Lymperi Andriana, Chatzilias Christos, Xydas Fotios, Martino Eftychia, Kyriakou Georgios, Katsaounis Alexandros
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece.
School of Sciences and Engineering, University of Nicosia, Nicosia 2417, Cyprus.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Jun 25;13(13):1930. doi: 10.3390/nano13131930.
The hydrogenation of CO is a reaction of key technological and environmental importance, as it contributes to the sustainable production of fuels while assisting in the reduction of a major greenhouse gas. The reaction has received substantial attention over the years within the catalysis and electrocatalysis communities. In this respect, the electrochemical promotion of catalysis (EPOC) has been applied successfully to the CO hydrogenation reaction to improve the catalytic activity and selectivity of conductive films supported on solid electrolytes. However, designing an effective electrocatalytic reactor remains a challenge due to the connections required between the electrodes and the external potentiostat/galvanostat. This drawback could be alleviated if the catalytic reaction occurs in a reactor that simultaneously operates as a power generator. In this work, the Electrochemical Promotion of the CO hydrogenation reaction in a low-temperature solid oxide electrolyte fuel cell (SOFC) reactor is studied using yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and a platinum (Pt) electrode catalyst. The system has been studied in two distinct operation modes: (i) when the necessary energy for the electrochemical promotion is produced through the parallel reaction of H oxidation (galvanic operation) and (ii) when a galvanostat/potentiostat is used to impose the necessary potential (electrolytic operation). The performance of the fuel cell declines less than 15% in the presence of the reactant mixture (CO and H) while producing enough current to conduct EPOC experiments. During the electrolytic operation of the electrochemical cell, the CO production rate is significantly increased by up to 50%.
CO的氢化反应在技术和环境方面具有关键重要性，因为它有助于可持续地生产燃料，同时有助于减少一种主要的温室气体。多年来，该反应在催化和电催化领域受到了广泛关注。在这方面，电化学促进催化（EPOC）已成功应用于CO氢化反应，以提高固体电解质负载的导电膜的催化活性和选择性。然而，由于电极与外部恒电位仪/恒电流仪之间需要连接，设计一个有效的电催化反应器仍然是一个挑战。如果催化反应发生在一个同时作为发电机运行的反应器中，这一缺点可能会得到缓解。在这项工作中，使用氧化钇稳定的氧化锆（YSZ）和铂（Pt）电极催化剂，研究了低温固体氧化物电解质燃料电池（SOFC）反应器中CO氢化反应的电化学促进作用。该系统已在两种不同的运行模式下进行了研究：（i）当通过H氧化的平行反应（恒电流运行）产生电化学促进所需的能量时，以及（ii）当使用恒电流仪/恒电位仪施加所需电位时（电解运行）。在存在反应物混合物（CO和H）的情况下，燃料电池的性能下降不到15%，同时产生足够的电流来进行EPOC实验。在电化学电池的电解运行过程中，CO的产生速率显著提高，最高可达50%。
