Development of on-demand and selective electolysis process using dual solid-state electrohcemical cells

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19019
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 36:Inorganic materials chemistry, energy-related chemistry, and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Amezawa Koji 東北大学, 多元物質科学研究所, 教授 (90263136)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: デュアル固体セル / 化学ポテンシャル / 電気化学制御

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this work, we aimed to establish “an on-demand selective electrolysis process”, which can selectively produce a certain ternary-components compound, by using a solid state dual electrochemical cell to control chemical potentials of two of three components. We constructed a dual electrochemical cell, which consists of two electrochemical cells conducting oxide-ion and proton, respectively. By using this dual electrochemical cell for selective synthesis of C-H-O compounds from CO2, the concept of “an on-demand selective electrolysis process” was demonstrated. It was shown that chemical potentials of oxygen and hydrogen in reaction site can be arbitrarily set by applying voltage to the dual electrochemical cell, and consequently the synthetic selectivity of CH4，CO，H2，H2O can be controlled.

Free Research Field

固体イオニクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまでに用いられてきた単一セルによる電解プロセスでは，2種類以上の元素の化学ポテンシャルを同時，独立かつ任意に制御することはできず，多元系化合物の選択合成は不可能であった．これに対し，本研究で提案・確立された「オンデマンド選択電解プロセス」を用いると，多元系化合物の選択合成が可能となることが示された．本研究では，C-H-O化合物の選択合成をモデルケースとしたが，実証されたコンセプトは，適切なデュアル固体セルを構築することで，原理的にはどのような多元系化合物の選択合成にも適用可能である．このように，新たな電解プロセスの可能性を示した点で，本研究の意義は大きい．