Porous Polymeric Electrodes for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Capture

Adv Mater. 2024 Oct;36(40):e2407567. doi: 10.1002/adma.202407567. Epub 2024 Aug 20.

Abstract

Carbon capture is a promising technology to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to achieve net carbon neutrality. Electro-swing reactive adsorption has emerged as an attractive approach for sustainable decarbonization. However, current electrodes with limited gas transport present a major barrier that hinders their practical implementation. Herein, porous polymeric electrodes are developed to effectively enhance CO2 transport without the need for additional gas diffusion conduits. Such all-in-one porous electrodes also enable more accessible redox active sites (e.g., quinones) for CO2 sorption, leading to an increased materials utilization efficiency of ≈90%. A continuous flow-through carbon capture and release operation with high Faradaic efficiency and excellent stability under practical working conditions is further demonstrated. Together with low cost and robust mechanical properties, the as-developed porous polymeric electrodes highlight the potential to advance the future implementation of electrochemical separation technologies.

Keywords: carbon capture; electrochemical; enhanced transport; polymer composites; porous electrodes.