The electrochemical fixation of dinitrogen to ammonia is a fraught field of false positives.1 Efficient aqueous electrochemical fixation, at atmospheric temperature and pressure, would decarbonise the process, and be a key step towards being commercially competitive with the Haber-Bosch process. We are focusing on a suite of potential catalysts for this reaction. Fugitive methane emissions pose a serious environmental risk, while simultaneously leaving a valuable feedstock unused. We are testing catalysts for the selective electrochemical partial oxidation of methane to methanol and other C1-C2 compounds, valorising this wasted resource. Both of these projects involve electrochemical reaction of a gas-phase reagent. Effective testing of electrocatalysts for gas-phase reagents must be performed in an appropriate setup.2
Gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) are a vital tool for benchmarking fuel cell catalysts.3 Commercial test setups are expensive ($4k–40k),4 limiting the ability to test multiple catalyst candidates to the number of cells available. This presentation describes our development of an open-source testing platform that allows rapid production of simple, low-cost, and adaptable test reactors, named openGDE or bayadjamara.
The reactor has been shown to work under various configurations, suitable for research scale testing of gas diffusion electrodes. The reactor has been shown to be comparable with a commercial reactor, and tested at pressures up to 4 barg. Rapid iteration coupled with parametric design has allowed for efficient testing of GDE catalyst candidates for the electrochemical fixation of nitrogen to ammonia.
This work makes gas diffusion electrode testing significantly more affordable, as well as adaptable for researchers with access to a 3D printer. Indeed, purchase of all components needed to make 1000 reactors is still less than a single commercial reactor.
References
[1] Jaecheol Choi, Bryan H. R. Suryanto, Dabin Wang, Hoang-Long Du, Rebecca Y. Hodgetts, Federico M. Ferrero Vallana, Douglas R. MacFarlane & Alexandr N. Simonov, Nat Commun 11, 5546 (2020).
[2] S. Nösberger, J. Du, J. Quinson, E. Berner, A. Zana, G. K. H. Wiberg, M. Arenz. Electrochem Sci Adv. 2023, 3, e2100190
[3] Fabio Masero, Marie A. Perrin, Subal Dey, Victor Mougel, Chemistry, A European Journal, 2021, 27, 3892-3928
[4] https://www.fuelcellstore.com/fuel-cell-testing