Supported Oxygen Evolution Catalysts by Design: Toward Lower Precious Metal Loading and Improved Conductivity in Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

Regmi, Yagya N.; Tzanetopoulos, Eden; Zeng, Guosong; Peng, Xiong; Kushner, Douglas I.; Kistler, Tobias A.; King, Laurie A.; Danilovic, Nemanja

doi:10.1021/acscatal.0c03098

Title: Supported Oxygen Evolution Catalysts by Design: Toward Lower Precious Metal Loading and Improved Conductivity in Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

Journal Article · Thu Oct 29 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · ACS Catalysis

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.0c03098· OSTI ID:1814913

^[1]; Tzanetopoulos, Eden ^[2]; Zeng, Guosong ^[3]; Peng, Xiong ^[3];

^[3];

^[4];

^[5]; Danilovic, Nemanja ^[3]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Manchester Metropolitan Univ. (United Kingdom)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Technische Univ. München, Garching (Germany)
Manchester Metropolitan Univ. (United Kingdom)

Reducing the precious metal content of water oxidation catalysts for proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers remains a critical barrier to their large-scale deployment. Herein, we present an engineered architecture for supported iridium catalysts, which enables decreased precious metal content and improved activity and conductivity. The improvement in performance at lower precious metal loading is realized by the deposition of a conformal layer of platinum nanoparticles on titanium dioxide (TiO₂) using a facile photoreduction method to prepare conductive layer coated supports (CCSs). Platinum nanoparticles are homogeneously dispersed on TiO₂, and the conductivity of the subsequent catalysts with 39 wt % precious group metal loadings is significantly higher than the commercial 75 wt % loaded IrO₂-TiO₂ catalysts. The conformal conductive layer also maintains an enhanced conductivity and electrochemical activity upon thermal annealing when compared to catalysts without the conductive layer and nonconformal heterogeneous conductive layer. The iridium mass activity from half-cell studies shows a 141% improvement for CCS supported catalysts at 42% lower loadings compared to the commercial catalysts. The conductive layer also improves the single cell electrolyzer performance at a similar catalyst loading in comparison to a commercial state-of-the-art catalyst. Here, we correlate the physical properties of the engineered catalysts with their electrochemical performance in electrolyzers to understand structure-activity relationships, and we anticipate further performance improvements upon synthesis and materials optimizations.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1814913

Journal Information:: ACS Catalysis, Vol. 10, Issue 21; ISSN 2155-5435

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
proton exchange membrane electrolyzers
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supported electrocatalysts
iridium catalysts
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Title: Supported Oxygen Evolution Catalysts by Design: Toward Lower Precious Metal Loading and Improved Conductivity in Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

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