Johnson Matthey
University of Oxford | Engineering Science

Building more durable components for converting CO₂ into useful chemicals

Many everyday products, including plastics, fibres and fuels, are made using carbon derived from fossil resources - contributing to the urgent climate change problem. Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction offers a potential alternative: using renewable electricity to convert CO₂ into useful chemical building blocks. But the technology faces a major obstacle before it can be widely commercially deployed. The thin catalyst layers inside electrolysers can degrade during operation, preventing the devices from running reliably for the long periods required by industry. How this degradation happens is currently poorly understood.

Toby’s research will combine formulation science, advanced imaging, spectroscopy and in operando neutron/X ray techniques to understand how catalyst–ionomer interactions control the structure, stability, and long term performance of the catalyst layer. This understanding will be used to establish design principles for durable polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - free catalyst layers that can perform at industrial scale.

By addressing a major barrier to commercialisation, the research could bring CO₂ electrolysers closer to industrial deployment, supporting lower-carbon chemical manufacturing, more resilient UK supply chains and the transition away from fossil-derived chemicals.