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DOE OSTI · 1866959

Engineered Thin Diffusion Layers for Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cells with Outstanding Performance

Kim, Yu Seung·Park, Eun Joo·Li, Kui·Yu, Shule·Li, Dongguo·Wang, Weitian·Xie, Zhiqiang·Fujimoto, Cy·Cullen, David A.·Zhang, Feng-Yuan
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Abstract

Anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (AEMECs) are one of the most promising technologies for carbon-neutral hydrogen production. Over the past few years, the performance and durability of AEMECs have substantially improved. Herein, we report an engineered liquid/gas diffusion layer (LGDL) with tunable pore morphologies that enables the high performance of AEMECs. The comparison with a commercial titanium foam in the electrolyzer indicated that the engineered LGDL with thin-flat and straight-pore structures significantly improved the interfacial contacts, mass transport, and activation of more reaction sites, leading to outstanding performance. We obtained a current density of 2.0 A/cm 2 at 1.80 V with an efficiency of up to 81.9% at 60 °C under 0.1 M NaOH-fed conditions. The as-achieved high performance in this study provides insight to design advanced LGDLs for the production of low-cost and high-efficiency AEMECs.

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRYanion exchange membraneelectrolyzer cellsgas diffusion electrodehydrogen productionliquid/gas diffusion layerswater splitting

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Kim, Yu Seung, Park, Eun Joo, Li, Kui, Yu, Shule, Li, Dongguo, Wang, Weitian, Xie, Zhiqiang, Fujimoto, Cy, Cullen, David A., Zhang, Feng-Yuan. 2021-10-19. Engineered Thin Diffusion Layers for Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cells with Outstanding Performance. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c14693

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