Interfacial engineering via laser ablation for high-performing PEM water electrolysis
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
A rationalized interfacial design strategy was applied to tailor the porous transport layer (PTL)-catalyst layer (CL) contact and the PTL bulk-phase architecture. Particularly, at the PTL-CL interface, our results reveal that laser ablated sintered titanium power-based PTLs improve electrolyzer performance at both the H2NEW Consortium baseline catalyst loading of 0.4 mgIr cm-2 as well as at the ultra-low catalyst loading of 0.055 mgIr cm-2. Under ultra-low catalyst loadings, the laser ablated PTL demonstrates maximum reduction of 230 mV compared to the commercial PTL at 4 A cm-2, and reduces by 68 mV at 3.2 A cm-2 under H2NEW baseline loading. Laser ablation alters the titanium phase at the interface, so it forms more uniform structure like a microporous layer or a backing layer, leading to an increase in the surface area in contact with the catalyst layer while preventing the membrane from deforming into the PTL. Moreover, we reveal that bulk-phase architecture modification of the PTL by ablating patterned pores at the flow field-PTL interface improves mass transport without sacrificing contact at the CL-PTL interface. Overall, laser ablation of the PTL is an effective method to customize interfacial design to enhance proton exchange membrane electrolyzer performance.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308; AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1963927
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5900-85737; MainId:86510; UUID:06fd8d2e-2852-4b7f-bb9b-104f5c79d3a5; MainAdminID:69131
- Journal Information:
- Applied Energy, Journal Name: Applied Energy Vol. 336; ISSN 0306-2619
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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