Novel thin/tunable gas diffusion electrodes with ultra-low catalyst loading for hydrogen evolution reactions in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells
Abstract
Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs) have received great attention for hydrogen/oxygen production due to their high efficiencies even at low-temperature operation. Because of the high cost of noble platinum-group metal (PGM) catalysts (Ir, Ru, Pt, etc.) that are widely used in water splitting, a PEMEC with low catalyst loadings and high catalyst utilizations is strongly desired for its wide commercialization. In this study, the ultrafast and multiscale hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) phenomena in an operating PEMEC is in-situ observed for the first time. The visualization results reveal that the HER and hydrogen bubble nucleation mainly occur on catalyst layers at the rim of the pores of the thin/tunable liquid/gas diffusion layers (TT-LGDLs). This indicates that the catalyst material of the conventional catalyst-coated membrane (CCM) that is located in the middle area of the LGDL pore is underutilized/inactive. Based on this discovery, a novel thin and tunable gas diffusion electrode (GDE) with a Pt catalyst thickness of 15 nm and a total thickness of about 25 um has been proposed and developed by taking advantage of advanced micro/nano manufacturing. The novel thin GDEs are comprehensively characterized both ex-situ and in-situ, and exhibit excellent PEMEC performance. More importantly, they achieve catalystmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tullahoma, TN (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1436032
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1433307; OSTI ID: 1630148
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5900-71307
Journal ID: ISSN 2211-2855
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nano Energy
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 47; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 2211-2855
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; Ultra-low catalyst loading; Thin gas diffusion electrode; Hydrogen evolution reaction; High catalyst mass activity; Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cell; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; ultra-low catalyst loading; thin gas diffusion electrode; hydrogen evolution reaction; high catalyst mass activity; proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cell
Citation Formats
Kang, Zhenye, Yang, Gaoqiang, Mo, Jingke, Li, Yifan, Yu, Shule, Cullen, David A., Retterer, Scott T., Toops, Todd J., Bender, Guido, Pivovar, Bryan S., Green, Jr., Johney B., and Zhang, Feng -Yuan. Novel thin/tunable gas diffusion electrodes with ultra-low catalyst loading for hydrogen evolution reactions in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.03.015.
Kang, Zhenye, Yang, Gaoqiang, Mo, Jingke, Li, Yifan, Yu, Shule, Cullen, David A., Retterer, Scott T., Toops, Todd J., Bender, Guido, Pivovar, Bryan S., Green, Jr., Johney B., & Zhang, Feng -Yuan. Novel thin/tunable gas diffusion electrodes with ultra-low catalyst loading for hydrogen evolution reactions in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.03.015
Kang, Zhenye, Yang, Gaoqiang, Mo, Jingke, Li, Yifan, Yu, Shule, Cullen, David A., Retterer, Scott T., Toops, Todd J., Bender, Guido, Pivovar, Bryan S., Green, Jr., Johney B., and Zhang, Feng -Yuan. Fri .
"Novel thin/tunable gas diffusion electrodes with ultra-low catalyst loading for hydrogen evolution reactions in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.03.015. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1436032.
@article{osti_1436032,
title = {Novel thin/tunable gas diffusion electrodes with ultra-low catalyst loading for hydrogen evolution reactions in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells},
author = {Kang, Zhenye and Yang, Gaoqiang and Mo, Jingke and Li, Yifan and Yu, Shule and Cullen, David A. and Retterer, Scott T. and Toops, Todd J. and Bender, Guido and Pivovar, Bryan S. and Green, Jr., Johney B. and Zhang, Feng -Yuan},
abstractNote = {Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs) have received great attention for hydrogen/oxygen production due to their high efficiencies even at low-temperature operation. Because of the high cost of noble platinum-group metal (PGM) catalysts (Ir, Ru, Pt, etc.) that are widely used in water splitting, a PEMEC with low catalyst loadings and high catalyst utilizations is strongly desired for its wide commercialization. In this study, the ultrafast and multiscale hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) phenomena in an operating PEMEC is in-situ observed for the first time. The visualization results reveal that the HER and hydrogen bubble nucleation mainly occur on catalyst layers at the rim of the pores of the thin/tunable liquid/gas diffusion layers (TT-LGDLs). This indicates that the catalyst material of the conventional catalyst-coated membrane (CCM) that is located in the middle area of the LGDL pore is underutilized/inactive. Based on this discovery, a novel thin and tunable gas diffusion electrode (GDE) with a Pt catalyst thickness of 15 nm and a total thickness of about 25 um has been proposed and developed by taking advantage of advanced micro/nano manufacturing. The novel thin GDEs are comprehensively characterized both ex-situ and in-situ, and exhibit excellent PEMEC performance. More importantly, they achieve catalyst mass activity of up to 58 times higher than conventional CCM at 1.6 V under the operating conditions of 80 degrees C and 1 atm. This study demonstrates a promising concept for PEMEC electrode development, and provides a direction of future catalyst designs and fabrications for electrochemical devices.},
doi = {10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.03.015},
journal = {Nano Energy},
number = C,
volume = 47,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Mar 09 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Fri Mar 09 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}
Web of Science
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