[{"key":"dc.contributor.author","value":"Salvatore, Danielle","language":null},{"key":"dc.date.accessioned","value":"2020-04-21T15:30:40Z","language":null},{"key":"dc.date.available","value":"2020-04-21T15:30:42Z","language":null},{"key":"dc.date.issued","value":"2020","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.identifier.uri","value":"http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/2429\/74068","language":null},{"key":"dc.description.abstract","value":"Electrochemical reduction of CO\u2082 to value-added liquid fuels and chemical feedstocks is a sustainable approach to off-peak electricity utilization. The propagation of a CO\u2082 value chain through capture-conversion technology is bottlenecked by a lack of systems capable of catalytic CO\u2082 conversion with the efficiency, selectivity, robustness, and economic viability relevant to industry. The design of a CO\u2082 electrolyzer that can operate at current densities (J) > 200 mA\/cm\u00b2 , Faradaic efficiencies (FE) > 85%, voltages < 3 V is germane to this challenge. Improving the efficiencies, selectivities and current densities of CO\u2082 electrocatalytic systems are of scientific, environmental, and economic importance. \r\nIn this thesis, I first demonstrate the development of a flow reactor that utilizes gas-phase CO\u2082 to achieve higher current densities (J = 200 mA\/cm\u00b2) than is possible with conventional aqueous-fed systems. I use a silver catalyst dispersed on a gas diffusion layer to produce CO with high selectivity ( > 50%). I deploy a bipolar membrane which allows the use of non-corrosive conditions on either electrode, thereby prolonging cell lifetime.\r\nI then detail the design and use of an analytical device to compare the voltages for different CO\u2082 flow reactor architectures to identify which cell components should be optimized to most effectively lower the overall cell voltage. Analysis of the voltages across the components of three different flow reactor configurations highlights that the reactions at the anodes and cathodes are relatively efficient and that much of the voltage loss occurs at the membran. These results illuminate that a better understanding of membranes and the membrane-catalyst interface is needed.\r\nFinally, I demonstrate the incorporation of a molecular catalyst into a CO\u2082 flow reactor for efficient conversion of CO\u2082 to CO. Molecular catalysts are known to have high activity for the CO\u2082  reduction reaction but typically at low rates of conversion (i.e., < 30 mA\/cm\u00b2). In this work, I show that a widely available molecular catalyst, cobalt phlalocyanine,  can mediate CO\u2082 to CO formation in a flow reactor with high conversion rates commensurate with solid-state metal catalysts (ie., > 150 mA\/cm\u00b2 and FE > 85%).","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.language.iso","value":"eng","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.publisher","value":"University of British Columbia","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.rights","value":"Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International","language":"*"},{"key":"dc.rights.uri","value":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/","language":"*"},{"key":"dc.title","value":"Electrocatalytic CO2 conversion in flow reactors","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.type","value":"Text","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.degree.name","value":"Doctor of Philosophy - PhD","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.degree.discipline","value":"Chemical and Biological Engineering","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.degree.grantor","value":"University of British Columbia","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.date.graduation","value":"2020-05","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.type.text","value":"Thesis\/Dissertation","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.description.affiliation","value":"Applied Science, Faculty of","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.description.affiliation","value":"Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.degree.campus","value":"UBCV","language":"en"},{"key":"dc.description.scholarlevel","value":"Graduate","language":"en"}]