Engineered Thin Diffusion Layers for Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cells with Outstanding Performance

Kui Li; Shule Yu; Dongguo Li; Lei Ding; Weitian Wang; Zhiqiang Xie; Eun Joo Park; Cy Fujimoto; David A. Cullen; Yu Seung Kim; Feng Yuan Zhang

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c14693

Engineered Thin Diffusion Layers for Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cells with Outstanding Performance

Kui Li, Shule Yu, Dongguo Li, Lei Ding, Weitian Wang, Zhiqiang Xie, Eun Joo Park, Cy Fujimoto, David A. Cullen, Yu Seung Kim, Feng Yuan Zhang

Materials MicroAnalysis

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (AEMECs) are one of the most promising technologies for carbon-neutral hydrogen production. Over the past few years, the performance and durability of AEMECs have substantially improved. Herein, we report an engineered liquid/gas diffusion layer (LGDL) with tunable pore morphologies that enables the high performance of AEMECs. The comparison with a commercial titanium foam in the electrolyzer indicated that the engineered LGDL with thin-flat and straight-pore structures significantly improved the interfacial contacts, mass transport, and activation of more reaction sites, leading to outstanding performance. We obtained a current density of 2.0 A/cm2 at 1.80 V with an efficiency of up to 81.9% at 60 °C under 0.1 M NaOH-fed conditions. The as-achieved high performance in this study provides insight to design advanced LGDLs for the production of low-cost and high-efficiency AEMECs.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	50957-50964
Number of pages	8
Journal	ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume	13
Issue number	43
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c14693
State	Published - Nov 3 2021

Funding

The authors greatly appreciate the support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Fuel Cell Technologies Office Award Number DE-EE0008426 and DE-EE0008423 and National Energy Technology Laboratory under Award DE-FE0011585. The authors also wish to express their appreciation to Alexander Terekhov, Douglas Warnberg, and Dr. Brian Canfield for their help.

Keywords

anion-exchange membrane
electrolyzer cells
gas diffusion electrode
hydrogen production
liquid/gas diffusion layers
water splitting

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Engineered Thin Diffusion Layers for Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cells with Outstanding Performance",

abstract = "Anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (AEMECs) are one of the most promising technologies for carbon-neutral hydrogen production. Over the past few years, the performance and durability of AEMECs have substantially improved. Herein, we report an engineered liquid/gas diffusion layer (LGDL) with tunable pore morphologies that enables the high performance of AEMECs. The comparison with a commercial titanium foam in the electrolyzer indicated that the engineered LGDL with thin-flat and straight-pore structures significantly improved the interfacial contacts, mass transport, and activation of more reaction sites, leading to outstanding performance. We obtained a current density of 2.0 A/cm2 at 1.80 V with an efficiency of up to 81.9% at 60 °C under 0.1 M NaOH-fed conditions. The as-achieved high performance in this study provides insight to design advanced LGDLs for the production of low-cost and high-efficiency AEMECs.",

keywords = "anion-exchange membrane, electrolyzer cells, gas diffusion electrode, hydrogen production, liquid/gas diffusion layers, water splitting",

author = "Kui Li and Shule Yu and Dongguo Li and Lei Ding and Weitian Wang and Zhiqiang Xie and Park, {Eun Joo} and Cy Fujimoto and Cullen, {David A.} and Kim, {Yu Seung} and Zhang, {Feng Yuan}",

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doi = "10.1021/acsami.1c14693",

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T1 - Engineered Thin Diffusion Layers for Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cells with Outstanding Performance

AU - Li, Kui

AU - Yu, Shule

AU - Li, Dongguo

AU - Ding, Lei

AU - Wang, Weitian

AU - Xie, Zhiqiang

AU - Park, Eun Joo

AU - Fujimoto, Cy

AU - Cullen, David A.

AU - Kim, Yu Seung

AU - Zhang, Feng Yuan

PY - 2021/11/3

Y1 - 2021/11/3

N2 - Anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (AEMECs) are one of the most promising technologies for carbon-neutral hydrogen production. Over the past few years, the performance and durability of AEMECs have substantially improved. Herein, we report an engineered liquid/gas diffusion layer (LGDL) with tunable pore morphologies that enables the high performance of AEMECs. The comparison with a commercial titanium foam in the electrolyzer indicated that the engineered LGDL with thin-flat and straight-pore structures significantly improved the interfacial contacts, mass transport, and activation of more reaction sites, leading to outstanding performance. We obtained a current density of 2.0 A/cm2 at 1.80 V with an efficiency of up to 81.9% at 60 °C under 0.1 M NaOH-fed conditions. The as-achieved high performance in this study provides insight to design advanced LGDLs for the production of low-cost and high-efficiency AEMECs.

AB - Anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (AEMECs) are one of the most promising technologies for carbon-neutral hydrogen production. Over the past few years, the performance and durability of AEMECs have substantially improved. Herein, we report an engineered liquid/gas diffusion layer (LGDL) with tunable pore morphologies that enables the high performance of AEMECs. The comparison with a commercial titanium foam in the electrolyzer indicated that the engineered LGDL with thin-flat and straight-pore structures significantly improved the interfacial contacts, mass transport, and activation of more reaction sites, leading to outstanding performance. We obtained a current density of 2.0 A/cm2 at 1.80 V with an efficiency of up to 81.9% at 60 °C under 0.1 M NaOH-fed conditions. The as-achieved high performance in this study provides insight to design advanced LGDLs for the production of low-cost and high-efficiency AEMECs.

KW - anion-exchange membrane

KW - electrolyzer cells

KW - gas diffusion electrode

KW - hydrogen production

KW - liquid/gas diffusion layers

KW - water splitting

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U2 - 10.1021/acsami.1c14693

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JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

IS - 43

ER -

Engineered Thin Diffusion Layers for Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cells with Outstanding Performance

Abstract

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Keywords

UN SDGs

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