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A phenazine-based high-capacity and high-stability electrochemical CO2 capture cell with coupled electricity storage

Nature Energy volume 8, pages 1126–1136 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Carbon dioxide capture technologies will be important for counteracting difficult-to-abate greenhouse gas emissions if humanity is to limit global warming to acceptable levels. Electrochemically mediated CO2 capture has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional amine scrubbing, offering a potentially cost effective, environmentally friendly and energy efficient approach. Here we report an electrochemical cell for CO2 capture based on pH swing cycles driven through proton-coupled electron transfer of a developed phenazine derivative, 2,2′-(phenazine-1,8-diyl)bis(ethane-1-sulfonate) (1,8-ESP), with high aqueous solubility (>1.35 M) over pH range 0.00–14.90. The system operates with a high capture capacity of 0.86–1.41 mol l−1, a low energetic cost of 36–55 kJ mol−1 and an extremely low capacity fade rate of <0.01% per day, depending on organic concentration. The system charge–discharge cycle provides an electrical energy storage function that could be run only for storage when called for by electricity market conditions.

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Fig. 1: Illustration of CO2 capture–release and energy storage–delivery cycle associated with the cell charge and discharge process.
Fig. 2: Molecular property study and schematic of the CO2 capture/release system.
Fig. 3: A CO2 concentrating cycle using a 1,8-ESP-based flow cell.
Fig. 4: CO2 separation performance at different 1,8-ESP concentrations and current densities.
Fig. 5: Cycling performance of 0.1 M 1,8-ESP full cell.
Fig. 6: CO2 capture cells under different oxygen concentrations.

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Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the published article and its Supplementary Information file. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22005249, 22101064) and Zhejiang Leading Innovative and Entrepreneur Team Introduction Program (2020R01004) is gratefully acknowledged. Research at Harvard University was supported by the Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund. We thank the Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences (ISCMS) and HPC Center at Westlake University for the facility support and technical assistance. We thank D.P. Schrag, T. George, A. Rinberg, Y. Jing and A. Bergman for helpful discussions. We thank X. Lu, X. Shi, Y. Chen and K. Wang for data collection and helpful discussions.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Shuai Pang, Shijian Jin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Precise Synthesis of Functional Molecules of Zhejiang Province, Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Research Center for Industries of the Future, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China

    Shuai Pang, Lu Li & Pan Wang

  2. Institute of Natural Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, China

    Shuai Pang, Lu Li & Pan Wang

  3. John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Shijian Jin, Dawei Xi, Roy G. Gordon & Michael J. Aziz

  4. School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China

    Fengcun Yang & Yunlong Ji

  5. Harvard College, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Maia Alberts

  6. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Roy G. Gordon

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Contributions

P.W., Y.J., R.G.G. and M.J.A. formulated and supervised the project. S.P. and F.Y. synthesized the compounds. S.J., M.A. and D.X. performed the CO2 capture tests. S.P. performed the cell cycling tests. L.L. performed theoretical analysis. S.J., P.W., Y.J. and M.J.A. wrote the paper, and all authors contributed to revising the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Pan Wang, Michael J. Aziz or Yunlong Ji.

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Nature Energy thanks Yayuan Liu, Shrihari Sankarasubramanian and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–39, Tables 1–5 and Notes 1 and 2.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 3

Source data for the CO2 concentrating cycle using a 1,8-ESP-based flow cell.

Source Data Fig. 4

Source data for CO2 separation performance at different 1,8-ESP concentrations and current densities.

Source Data Fig. 5

Source data for the cycling performance of 0.1 M 1,8-ESP full cell.

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Pang, S., Jin, S., Yang, F. et al. A phenazine-based high-capacity and high-stability electrochemical CO2 capture cell with coupled electricity storage. Nat Energy 8, 1126–1136 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01347-z

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