Materials advancements in electrochemically mediated carbon capture

Abstract

Electrochemically mediated carbon capture (EMCC) has emerged as a promising technology for mitigating global warming, offering energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and modular design flexibility. Despite its potential, the widespread adoption of EMCC systems faces challenges. Intrinsic issues, such as parasitic reactions and the limited reversibility of redox-active species, contribute to performance degradation over repeated carbon capture-release cycles. Additionally, scaling up bench-scale EMCC setups for industrial applications demands substantial efforts to overcome critical engineering bottlenecks. This review focuses on EMCC systems based on reversible mechanisms, highlighting recent advancements in material design from molecular to process levels to address the aforementioned challenges. We also provide perspectives on advancing the field through deeper fundamental understanding and the establishment of standardized evaluation protocols, aiming to accelerate the development and deployment of EMCC technologies at scale.