(6bo) Electrosynthesis for Sustainable Chemical Production

Achieving sustainable production pathways for fuels and chemicals is one the great challenges of the 21^st century. Propelled by the rapid deployment of renewable electricity generation, electrochemical technologies such as water splitting and CO₂ electrolysis have great promise for green chemical synthesis. However, significant hurdles in theoretical understanding, electrocatalyst design, and process engineering must be overcome for wide-scale commercialization of these technologies. My research interests involve addressing these challenges through a combined approach, where fundamental insights facilitate the discovery of new materials and processes, which are then integrated into pilot-scale electrochemical devices to identify engineering challenges and analyze process feasibility.

During my Ph.D. under Professor Feng Jiao, I have applied this integrated approach to the development of CO₂ electrolysis systems for the electrosynthesis of multi-carbon (C₂₊) chemical feedstocks such as ethylene and alcohols. Early on, we completed a techno-economic analysis to identify key performance metrics required for commercialization.¹ We then developed a novel highly-porous copper electrocatalyst which enabled CO₂ conversion to C₂₊ products at industrially relevant rates.² After device-level testing identified key challenges in operating CO₂ electrolysis in alkaline electrolyte, we decoupled the process through the carbon monoxide (CO) intermediate and demonstrated CO electrolysis to C₂₊ products with high selectivity.³ Additionally, we identified the role of electrolyte and catalyst for acetate formation,^3,4 and utilized these mechanistic insights to develop a new process for the electrosynthesis of acetamides.^5,6 We are currently developing novel electrolyzer architectures to produce concentrated product streams through CO electrolysis and scaling them up to stack level systems to integrate with a CO₂ electrolyzer.^7,8 During the poster session, I will expand upon the foundational experience I have gained working on these projects and present my future research plans for developing new electrosynthesis technologies.

Teaching Interests:

At Delaware, I served as teaching assistant for an engineering mathematics course where I was responsible for providing lectures to students with a wide range of experience on using Matlab to solve engineering problems. Additionally, I gave guest lectures in the graduate elective courses “Electrochemical Engineering” and “Special Topics in Energy”. Given my research background, I am particularly passionate about these topics, and hope to develop courses which inspire the next generation of students to work on these critical challenges. Furthermore, I have had the pleasure of mentoring several undergraduate and visiting graduate students in electrochemical systems research.

Selected Publications & Patents:

1. M. Jouny,W. Luc, & F. Jiao. General techno-economic analysis of CO₂ electrolysis systems, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 57, 2165-2177 (2018). [WoS Highly Cited Paper]
2. J. Lv,^* M. Jouny,^*W. Luc, W. Zhu, J.J. Zhu, & F. Jiao. Highly porous copper electrocatalyst for carbon dioxide reduction. Advanced Materials 30, 1803111 (2018)
3. M. Jouny,W. Luc, & F. Jiao. High-rate electroreduction of carbon monoxide to multi-carbon products, Nature Catalysis 1, 748-755 (2018). [Selected as Cover Story]
4. W. Luc,^* X. Fu,^* J. Shi, J. Lv, M. Jouny, B. Ko, Y.B. Xu, Q. Tu, X.B. Hu, J.S. Wu, Q. Yue, Y.Y. Liu, F. Jiao, & Y.J. Kang. Two-Dimensional Copper Nanosheets for Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Monoxide to Acetate. Nature Catalysis 2, 423-430 (2019).
5. M. Jouny,^* J. Lv,^* T. Cheng,^*, B. Ko, J. Zhu, W. Goddard, & F. Jiao. Formation of carbon-nitrogen bonds in carbon monoxide electrolysis. Nature Chemistry (under review)
6. F. Jiao, M. Jouny, & J. Lv. Electrochemical generation of valuable chemicals from carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. U.S. Patent Application No. 62/757,785. 2018
7. W. Luc, M. Jouny, J. Rosen, & F. Jiao. Carbon dioxide splitting using an electro-thermochemical hybrid looping strategy. Energy & Environmental Science 11, 2928-2934 (2018).
8. M. Jouny, G. Hutchings, & F. Jiao. Carbon Monoxide Electroreduction: An Emerging Platform for Carbon Utilization. Submitted.

*equal contribution