Comparing Advanced Bipolar Membranes for High-Current Electrodialysis and Membrane Electrolysis

Journal Article · Fri Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2025 · ACS Energy Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.4c03538· OSTI ID:2569643

Vulpin, Olivia T; Mitchell, James B; Chen, Lihaokun; Lim, Jeonghoon; Sasmal, Sayantan; Price, Nathan G; Jarvis, Sam R; Boettcher, Shannon W

Advanced bipolar membranes (BPMs) with low water-dissociation overpotential (ηwd) may enable new electrochemical technologies for electrolysis, fuel cells, acid–base synthesis, brine remediation, lithium-battery recycling, and cement production. However, these advanced BPMs have only been demonstrated in BPM water electrolysis (BPMWE) configurations where the BPM is under static compression by the porous-transport layers. It is important to study these BPMs in applications like electrodialysis where large degrees of static compression are not possible. We present a BPM electrodialysis (BPMED) platform to measure water-dissociation overpotential (ηwd) and compare BPMWE and BPMED systems. We show advanced BPMs with half the ηwd compared to commercial BPMs for BPMED while maintaining ∼90% current efficiency from 0.05–0.5 A cm–2. The BPMED ηwd values are, however, about 0.2 V higher at 0.5 A cm–2 than those for BPMWE. Regardless, these results show that BPMs developed and optimized in BPMWE applications are well-suited for next-generation high-current-density BPMED technologies.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy; USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2569643
• Journal Information: ACS Energy Letters, Journal Name: ACS Energy Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 10
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English