Electrifying Catalyst Production by Continuous-Flow Slurry Electrolysis
The chemical industry is electrifying toward a net-zero emission future. Unfortunately, the catalyst manufacturing process remains almost untouched in the transition to electrification due to challenges in size controllability and powder handling. Herein, we reported a slurry electrolysis strategy for scale-up production of Cu nanocatalysts at the productivity of 15 g per hour with a Cu loading of 2.5 wt % in laboratory flow electrolyzers, while maintaining excellent controllability of particle size down to single atoms by regulating the nucleation and particle growth process via pulsed electrochemistry. Our strategy can be further extended to the synthesis of Ag and CuAg catalysts for diverse electrochemical applications. Further techno-economic analysis shows an extremely low greenhouse gas emission and production cost (0.03 kg<sub>GHG</sub> and 16.4 USD per kg catalyst) compared to traditional approaches. This effectively addresses the productivity bottleneck in the electrosynthesis of nanocatalysts and paves the way for practical applications.
Authors
- Dongxu Ji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3743-0939)
- Zhigang Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2092-8335)
- Jiabin Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5265-7416)
- Huaiguang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4700-7328)
- Jiahua Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2238-9147)
- Guanwu Lian
- Chao Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8000-9053)
- Shibo Xi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8521-3237)
- Xiaoxu Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9746-3770)
- Xiaocang Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8458-5568)
- Kangshu Li
- Dan Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3738-6421)
- Haotong Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1265-7005)
- Wenkai Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7558-3410)
- Chun Ran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0971-9380)
- Jingjing Xiong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8654-0029)
- Yucong Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0875-3686)
- Zhongxin Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6153-5381)
Institutions
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research (SG)
- Nanjing Tech University (CN)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Peking University (CN)
- Institute for Basic Science (KR)
- Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (SG)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JACS Au
- Published
- 2025-11-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.5c00897
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.09