Performance improvement of proton exchange membrane water electrolysis by surface modification of porous transport layers
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- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is a promising option for hydrogen production from a variety of energy sources. Cost-effective production of hydrogen with PEMWE requires reduction of costly precious metals as well as optimization of the components and interfaces in the cell. The interface between the platinum-coated titanium porous transport layer (PTL) and catalyst layer (CL) significantly impacts the performance of the electrolyzer cell. Here, we report on two PTL modification methods, mechanical abrasion and chemical etching, which we find improve PEMWE performance by lowering the resistance of the PTL/CL interface. The PTL surface modifications enabled performance improvements up to 77 mV at 4 A cm−2 and reduction of the high frequency resistance, demonstrating that the resistance of the PTL/CL interface is a significant factor in the cell performance. The PTL surface roughness was varied using abrasive materials ranging from 0.1 to 140 μm in grain sizes and chemical etching was found to also increase the surface roughness. The surface roughness was quantified using confocal laser microscopy and the surface oxidation was measured using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. These results demonstrate that both increasing surface roughness and oxide removal contribute to lowering the PTL/CL interfacial resistance and increasing cell performance.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 2572181
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA--5900-90345
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Power Sources, Journal Name: Journal of Power Sources Vol. 652; ISSN 0378-7753
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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