Alkaline anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers to produce hydrogen from water remain at an early stage of development, and their performance is far lower than that of systems based on proton exchange membranes. Here, we report an ammonium-enriched anion exchange ionomer that improves the performance of an AEM electrolyser to levels approaching that of state-of-the-art proton exchange membrane electrolysers. Using rotating-disk electrode experiments, we show that a high pH (>13) in the electrode binder is the critical factor for improving the activity of the hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution reactions in AEM electrolysers. Based on this observation, we prepared and tested several quaternized polystyrene electrode binders in an AEM electrolyser. Using the binder with the highest ionic concentration and a NiFe oxygen evolution catalyst, we demonstrated performance of 2.7 A cm-2 at 1.8 V without a corrosive circulating alkaline solution. The limited durability of the AEM electrolyser remains a challenge to be addressed in the future.
Kim, Yu Seung, et al. "Highly quaternized polystyrene ionomers for high performance anion exchange membrane water electrolysers." Nature Energy, vol. 5, no. 5, Mar. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0577-x
Kim, Yu Seung, Li, Dongguo, Park, Eun Joo, et al., "Highly quaternized polystyrene ionomers for high performance anion exchange membrane water electrolysers," Nature Energy 5, no. 5 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0577-x
@article{osti_1781386,
author = {Kim, Yu Seung and Li, Dongguo and Park, Eun Joo and Wenlei, Zhu and Qiurong, Shi and Zhou, Yang and Tian, Hangyu and Lin, Yuehe and Serov, Alexey and Zulevi, Barr and others},
title = {Highly quaternized polystyrene ionomers for high performance anion exchange membrane water electrolysers},
annote = {Alkaline anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers to produce hydrogen from water remain at an early stage of development, and their performance is far lower than that of systems based on proton exchange membranes. Here, we report an ammonium-enriched anion exchange ionomer that improves the performance of an AEM electrolyser to levels approaching that of state-of-the-art proton exchange membrane electrolysers. Using rotating-disk electrode experiments, we show that a high pH (>13) in the electrode binder is the critical factor for improving the activity of the hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution reactions in AEM electrolysers. Based on this observation, we prepared and tested several quaternized polystyrene electrode binders in an AEM electrolyser. Using the binder with the highest ionic concentration and a NiFe oxygen evolution catalyst, we demonstrated performance of 2.7 A cm-2 at 1.8 V without a corrosive circulating alkaline solution. The limited durability of the AEM electrolyser remains a challenge to be addressed in the future.},
doi = {10.1038/s41560-020-0577-x},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1781386},
journal = {Nature Energy},
issn = {ISSN 2058-7546},
number = {5},
volume = {5},
place = {United States},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
year = {2020},
month = {03}}