A scalable, biopolymer-based microenvironment for electrochemical CO2 conversion to multicarbon products with current densities over 2 A cm−2

Abstract The electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) relies heavily on the surrounding microenvironment to promote formation of desirable multicarbon (C 2+ ) products. However, microenvironment control to achieve high C 2+ yields at industrially relevant current densities remains a crucial challenge. We report that chitosan, cellulose and chitin biopolymer coatings on CO 2 RR electrocatalysts enhance the microenvironment by increasing local CO 2 /CO concentration, reducing local water activity and providing suitable ion conductivity and local pH. This facile approach achieves C 2+ Faradaic efficiencies of 90 ± 1.7% at 1.6 A cm −2 and C 2+ Faradaic efficiency = 83 ± 3.2% at 2.2 A cm −2 with a formation rate of 5,926 μmol h −1 cm −2 . Importantly, within the cathode, these ion-conductive hydrophilic biopolymers can fully substitute traditional hydrophobic ionomers/binders, such as Nafion, challenging previous assumptions about the non-viability of hydrophilic materials for selective CO 2 RR due to excess interfacial H 2 O. These findings unveil key insights into microenvironment design to enhance C–C coupling through a simple method.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Energy
Published
2026-04-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-026-02040-7
Primary Topic
CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

A scalable, biopolymer-based microenvironment for electrochemical CO2 conversion to multicarbon products with current densities over 2 A cm−2

Chunnian He, Caiwei Zhang, Chaolong Wei, Andrew Barnabas Wong et al.
Nature Energy
CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
article

A scalable, biopolymer-based microenvironment for electrochemical CO2 conversion to multicarbon products with current densities over 2 A cm−2

Chunnian He, Caiwei Zhang, Chaolong Wei, Andrew Barnabas Wong, Yun Jeong Hwang, Suhwan Yoo, Boon Siang Yeo, Yaqi Cheng, Tiras Y. Lin, Joel B. Varley, Yan Li, Guangxin Sun, Yao Wu, Haibin Ma, Qian He
article en

Abstract

Abstract The electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) relies heavily on the surrounding microenvironment to promote formation of desirable multicarbon (C 2+ ) products. However, microenvironment control to achieve high C 2+ yields at industrially relevant current densities remains a crucial challenge. We report that chitosan, cellulose and chitin biopolymer coatings on CO 2 RR electrocatalysts enhance the microenvironment by increasing local CO 2 /CO concentration, reducing local water activity and providing suitable ion conductivity and local pH. This facile approach achieves C 2+ Faradaic efficiencies of 90 ± 1.7% at 1.6 A cm −2 and C 2+ Faradaic efficiency = 83 ± 3.2% at 2.2 A cm −2 with a formation rate of 5,926 μmol h −1 cm −2 . Importantly, within the cathode, these ion-conductive hydrophilic biopolymers can fully substitute traditional hydrophobic ionomers/binders, such as Nafion, challenging previous assumptions about the non-viability of hydrophilic materials for selective CO 2 RR due to excess interfacial H 2 O. These findings unveil key insights into microenvironment design to enhance C–C coupling through a simple method.

Nature Energy
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US), Seoul National University (KR), Tianjin University (CN), National University of Singapore (SG)
U.S. Department of Energy, National Research Foundation, National University of Singapore, National Research Foundation Singapore, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Seoul National University, Tianjin University, Ministry of Education, India, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Office of Energy Efficiency, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Clean water and sanitation
Openalex Percentile: Top 33%
CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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