A novel strategy for ionomer coating of Ag nanoparticles used for the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO in a membrane electrode assembly

The electrochemical reduction of CO 2 reaction (CO 2 RR) offers an attractive means for converting the carbon content of CO 2 , released from stationary source or the atmosphere, into fuels and chemicals [1].Utilization of CO 2 captured from the atmosphere and energy provided by electricity sourced from wind or solar energy is particularly appealing because it enable sustainable production of carbon-containing products.The most attractive type of CO 2 electrolyzer for commercial application is a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), as shown in Fig. 1a [2,3].This device consists of an anion-exchange membrane (AEM) sandwiched between two gas diffusion electrodes (GDE), each of which comprises a gas diffusion layer (GDL) and a catalyst layer (CL).The cathode CL contains metal nanoparticles,