Development of the World's Highest Performance Anion Exchange Membrane Material for Carbon Dioxide Conversion

Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology Achieves Over Twice the Performance and Durability Compared to Previous Standards

Domestic researchers have developed an anion exchange membrane material technology for electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion with the world's highest performance and durability.

The Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) announced on the 24th that Dr. Jang-Yong Lee's research team, together with Dr. Dahye Won and Dr. Woong Lee's research team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), developed a material that can significantly improve the performance of an anion exchange membrane used to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide (CO), a chemical raw material.

Carbon monoxide is an important industrial raw material and a basic substance for various chemical products such as alcohol and plastics. Therefore, various technologies are being developed to convert carbon dioxide, a major cause of climate change, into useful resources like carbon monoxide. Among these, the electrochemical conversion process is attracting attention as a next-generation carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology because it consumes less energy and has a simple process, and related commercialization research is actively underway.

For the commercialization of the electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion process, the performance of the 'cathode material,' 'anode material,' and 'anion exchange membrane material' that make up the process must all be excellent. However, among them, the anion exchange membrane material has been a technical challenge, and research and development have been slow, hindering the commercialization of the process. In particular, the anion exchange membrane must have excellent performance in transporting anions from the cathode to the anode. Durability to withstand high temperatures stably for a long time when applied to the process is also important. Currently, anion exchange membranes used for research purposes are entirely imported from overseas, but they are vulnerable to heat, have low durability, and exhibit poor ion conductivity. Despite this, due to the high technical difficulty of material development, no material surpassing these has been developed.

The research team applied a technology to increase molecular weight to create a robust 'polycarbazole-based' polymer material and imparted chemical properties that allow anions to pass through well. They developed the first domestic anion exchange membrane for electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion with both excellent performance and durability. Generally, polymer materials have better durability as their molecular weight increases, meaning the larger the molecular mass connected repeatedly like a chain, the better the durability. This is called 'polymerization technology,' and the research team strengthened the anion exchange membrane material using KRICT's patented technology. Experimental results showed that unlike existing materials with low thermal stability that operate only at room temperature, the newly developed material could operate stably for 150 hours even under operating conditions of 60°C. Additionally, by introducing a 'tetramethylimidazolium group' with a flexible branch-like chemical structure into the polymer material, hydroxide ions (OH-) generated as reaction products at the cathode could move well to the anode. This improved the ion conductivity, a core performance of the material.

This material recorded more than twice the carbon monoxide production performance compared to existing overseas materials. Under the same conditions (1KW stack per day), existing materials can produce up to about 1.6 kg of carbon monoxide per day, whereas the material developed by the research team can produce up to about 3.6 kg of carbon monoxide per day. Furthermore, devices applying the newly developed material and existing commercial materials were each verified through computer simulations, theoretically explaining the actual experimental results. Through this, the core design requirements of anion exchange membranes for improving carbon dioxide conversion performance were clearly theorized. □ Lee Young-guk, President of KRICT, stated, “This technology development not only reduces the technological gap in core electrolyte materials in the energy sector with advanced countries but also is expected to become a lever for developing next-generation CCU innovative technologies through technology transfer and commercialization with related companies in the future.”

The research results were published in the international scientific journal in the field of science and technology, ‘ACS Energy Letters’ (IF: 22.0), in April.

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