Understanding Flooding in Cu-Gde Based CO2 Electrolyzers Via Real Time Mass Spectroscopy

In the recent years, CO 2 electrolyzers based on Cu-coated GDE systems became a hot topic of various research groups. As the field broadens, we are gaining better control over product selectivity, which coupled to achieving industrially relevant current densities (>300 mA/cm²), is bringing the inevitable widespread industrial adoption closer than ever. A huge limiting factor in economically viable big-scale CO 2 electroreduction however, is still it´s long-term operational stability. The latter depends on two factors - catalyst stability and gas diffusion electrode´s resistance to electrowetting. In this work, we utilize a direct real time mass spectrometry approach to dive deeper into mechanism of GDE electrowetting, trying to understand what causes it and eventually make first steps in it´s prevention.