Promoting Electrolysis of Carbon Monoxide toward Acetate and 1-Propanol in Flow Electrolyzer

Acetic acid/acetate is an important precursor for many chemical manufacturing sectors, as well as a feedstock for the microbial synthesis of value-added biofuel and biomass products. As the downstream reaction in tandem with the carbon dioxide reduction reaction, carbon monoxide electrolysis has a unique advantage over direct carbon dioxide reduction, boosting the selectivity for multicarbon products. However, highly selective and high-current-throughput acetate and 1-propanol production from CO electrolysis is yet to be explored. Herein, we present practical approaches for improving acetate and 1-propanol selectivity and yield from CO electrolysis using a commercial copper catalyst. Acetate showed a strong pH dependence with an optimum performance at 90% Faradaic efficiency and 128 mA cm–2 current density. In addition, 1-propanol showed a strong catalyst loading dependence, achieving 20% Faradaic efficiency under high-catalyst-loading conditions. In situ Raman and Multiphysics modeling further demonstrated the mechanism of the improvements.