Constructing Highly Porous Low Iridium Anode Catalysts Via Dealloying for Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

Liang, Jiashun; Fu, Cehuang; Hwang, Sooyeon; Dun, Chaochao; Luo, Liuxuan; Shadike, Zulipiya; Shen, Shuiyun; Zhang, Junliang; Xu, Hui; Wu, Gang

doi:10.1002/adma.202409386

Title: Constructing Highly Porous Low Iridium Anode Catalysts Via Dealloying for Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

Journal Article · 05 December 2024 · Advanced Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202409386 · OSTI ID:2503923

Liang, Jiashun ^[1]; Fu, Cehuang ^[2]; Hwang, Sooyeon ^[3]; Dun, Chaochao ^[4]; Luo, Liuxuan ^[5]; Shadike, Zulipiya ^[5]; Shen, Shuiyun ^[5]; Zhang, Junliang ^[5]; Xu, Hui ^[6];

^[1]

Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
State Univ. of New York at Buffalo, NY (United States); Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China)
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China)
Envision Energy USA, Burlington, MA (United States)

Iridium (Ir) is the most active and durable anode catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs). However, their large-scale applications are hindered by high costs and scarcity of Ir. Lowering Ir loadings below 1.0 mgcm^-2 causes significantly reduced PEMWE performance and durability. Therefore, developing efficient low Ir-based catalysts is critical to widely commercializing PEMWEs. Herein, an approach is presented for designing porous Ir metal aerogel (MA) catalysts via chemically dealloying IrCu alloys. In this study, the unique hierarchical pore structures and multiple channels of the Ir MA catalyst significantly increase electrochemical surface area (ECSA) and enhance OER activity compared to conventional Ir black catalysts, providing an effective solution to design low-Ir catalysts with improved Ir utilization and enhanced stability. An optimized membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with an Ir loading of 0.5 mg_Ir cm^-2 generated 2.0 A cm^-2 at 1.79 V, higher than the Ir black at a loading of 2.0 mg_Ir cm^-2 (1.63 A cm^-2). The low-Ir MEA demonstrated an acceptable decay rate of ≈40 µV h^-1 during durability tests at 0.5 (>1200 h) and 2.0 A cm^-2 (400 h), outperforming the commercial Ir-based MEA (175 µV h^-1 at 2.0 mg_Ir cm^-2).

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: US Department of Energy; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22), Scientific User Facilities Division (SC-22.3 ); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 2503923

Report Number(s):: BNL--226484-2025-JAAM; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8kn5663c; ark:/13030/qt8kn5663c

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 37; ISSN 0935-9648; ISSN 1521-4095

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Ir catalysts
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Title: Constructing Highly Porous Low Iridium Anode Catalysts Via Dealloying for Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

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