Earth-Abundant Electrocatalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers

Water electrolysis provides efficient and cost-effective production of hydrogen from renewable energy. Currently, the oxidation half-cell reaction relies on noble-metal catalysts, impeding widespread application. In order to adopt water electrolyzers as the main hydrogen production systems, it is critical to develop inexpensive and earth-abundant catalysts. This review discusses the proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (WE) and the progress in replacing the noble-metal catalysts with earth-abundant ones. Researchers within this field are aiming to improve the efficiency and stability of earth-abundant catalysts (EACs), as well as to discover new ones. The latter is particularly important for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under acidic media, where the only stable and efficient catalysts are noble-metal oxides, such as IrOx and RuOx. On the other hand, there is significant progress on EACs for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic conditions, but how many of these EACs have been used in PEM WEs and tested under realistic conditions? What is the current status on the development of EACs for the OER? These are the two main questions this review addresses.

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Earth-Abundant Electrocatalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers

Catalysts ◽

10.3390/catal8120657 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 657 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Xinwei Sun ◽

Kaiqi Xu ◽

Christian Fleischer ◽

Xin Liu ◽

Mathieu Grandcolas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Noble Metal ◽

Proton Exchange Membrane ◽

Water Electrolysis ◽

Metal Catalysts ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Noble Metal Catalysts ◽

Earth Abundant ◽

Noble Metal Oxides ◽

Acidic Conditions ◽

Exchange Membrane

In order to adopt water electrolyzers as a main hydrogen production system, it is critical to develop inexpensive and earth-abundant catalysts. Currently, both half-reactions in water splitting depend heavily on noble metal catalysts. This review discusses the proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (WE) and the progress in replacing the noble-metal catalysts with earth-abundant ones. The efforts within this field for the discovery of efficient and stable earth-abundant catalysts (EACs) have increased exponentially the last few years. The development of EACs for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media is particularly important, as the only stable and efficient catalysts until now are noble-metal oxides, such as IrOx and RuOx. On the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) side, there is significant progress on EACs under acidic conditions, but there are very few reports of these EACs employed in full PEM WE cells. These two main issues are reviewed, and we conclude with prospects for innovation in EACs for the OER in acidic environments, as well as with a critical assessment of the few full PEM WE cells assembled with EACs.

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Earth-Abundant and Precious Group Metal-Free Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Based Water Electrolysis

ECS Meeting Abstracts ◽

10.1149/ma2020-01371532mtgabs ◽

2020 ◽

Vol MA2020-01 (37) ◽

pp. 1532-1532

Author(s):

Shrinath Dattatray Ghadge ◽

Oleg I Velikokhatnyi ◽

Moni Kanchan Datta ◽

Prashant Nagesh Kumta

Keyword(s):

Hydrogen Evolution ◽

Hydrogen Evolution Reaction ◽

Proton Exchange Membrane ◽

Water Electrolysis ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Metal Free ◽

Group Metal ◽

Earth Abundant ◽

Exchange Membrane

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Effect of Electronic Conductivities of Iridium Oxide/Doped SnO2 Oxygen-Evolving Catalysts on the Polarization Properties in Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis

10.20944/preprints201811.0285.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Hideaki Ohno ◽

Shinji Nohara ◽

Katsuyoshi Kakinuma ◽

Makoto Uchida ◽

Hiroyuki Uchida

Keyword(s):

Single Cell ◽

Noble Metal ◽

Proton Exchange Membrane ◽

Electronic Conductivity ◽

Water Electrolysis ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Membrane Thickness ◽

Ohmic Loss ◽

Half Cell ◽

Exchange Membrane

We have developed IrOx/M-SnO2 (M = Nb, Ta, and Sb) anode catalysts, IrOx nanoparticles uniformly dispersed on M-SnO2 supports with fused-aggregate structures, which make it possible to evolve oxygen efficiently, even with a reduced amount of noble metal (Ir) in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Polarization properties of IrOx/M-SnO2 catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) were examined at 80 °C in both 0.1 M HClO4 solution (half cell) and a single cell with a Nafion® membrane (thickness = 50 μm). While all catalysts exhibited similar OER activities in the half cell, the cell potential (Ecell) of the single cell was found to decrease with the increasing apparent conductivities (σapp, catalyst) of these catalysts: an Ecell of 1.61 V (voltage efficiency of 92%) at 1 A cm-2 was achieved in a single cell by the use of an IrOx/Sb-SnO2 anode (highest σapp, catalyst) with a low Ir-metal loading of 0.11 mgIr cm-2 and Pt supported on graphitized carbon black (Pt/GCB) as the cathode, with 0.35 mgPt cm−2. In addition to the reduction of the ohmic loss in the anode catalyst layer, the increased electronic conductivity contributed to decreasing the OER overpotential due to the effective utilization of the IrOx nanocatalysts on the M-SnO2 supports, which is an essential factor in improving the performance with low noble metal loadings.

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Effect of Electronic Conductivities of Iridium Oxide/Doped SnO2 Oxygen-Evolving Catalysts on the Polarization Properties in Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis

Catalysts ◽

10.3390/catal9010074 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 74 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Hideaki Ohno ◽

Shinji Nohara ◽

Katsuyoshi Kakinuma ◽

Makoto Uchida ◽

Hiroyuki Uchida

Keyword(s):

Single Cell ◽

Noble Metal ◽

Proton Exchange Membrane ◽

Electronic Conductivity ◽

Water Electrolysis ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Membrane Thickness ◽

Ohmic Loss ◽

Half Cell ◽

Exchange Membrane

We have developed IrOx/M-SnO2 (M = Nb, Ta, and Sb) anode catalysts, IrOx nanoparticles uniformly dispersed on M-SnO2 supports with fused-aggregate structures, which make it possible to evolve oxygen efficiently, even with a reduced amount of noble metal (Ir) in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Polarization properties of IrOx/M-SnO2 catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) were examined at 80 °C in both 0.1 M HClO4 solution (half cell) and a single cell with a Nafion® membrane (thickness = 50 μm). While all catalysts exhibited similar OER activities in the half cell, the cell potential (Ecell) of the single cell was found to decrease with the increasing apparent conductivities (σapp, catalyst) of these catalysts: an Ecell of 1.61 V (voltage efficiency of 92%) at 1 A cm−2 was achieved in a single cell by the use of an IrOx/Sb-SnO2 anode (highest σapp, catalyst) with a low Ir-metal loading of 0.11 mg cm−2 and Pt supported on graphitized carbon black (Pt/GCB) as the cathode with 0.35 mg cm−2 of Pt loading. In addition to the reduction of the ohmic loss in the anode catalyst layer, the increased electronic conductivity contributed to decreasing the OER overpotential due to the effective utilization of the IrOx nanocatalysts on the M-SnO2 supports, which is an essential factor in improving the performance with low noble metal loadings.

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High‐Efficiency Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis Employing Non‐Noble Metal Catalysts

Advanced Energy Materials ◽

10.1002/aenm.202002285 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (39) ◽

pp. 2002285

Author(s):

Pengzuo Chen ◽

Xile Hu

Keyword(s):

Anion Exchange ◽

Noble Metal ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Water Electrolysis ◽

Metal Catalysts ◽

Anion Exchange Membrane ◽

Noble Metal Catalysts ◽

Exchange Membrane

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Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis: Modeling for hydrogen flow rate control

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy ◽

10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.11.276 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 46 (11) ◽

pp. 7676-7700

Author(s):

Rebah Maamouri ◽

Damien Guilbert ◽

Michel Zasadzinski ◽

Hugues Rafaralahy

Keyword(s):

Flow Rate ◽

Rate Control ◽

Proton Exchange Membrane ◽

Water Electrolysis ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Hydrogen Flow Rate ◽

Hydrogen Flow ◽

Flow Rate Control ◽

Exchange Membrane

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On the Effect of Anion Exchange Ionomer Binders in Bipolar Electrode Membrane Interface Water Electrolysis

Journal of Materials Chemistry A ◽

10.1039/d1ta00747e ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Britta Mayerhöfer ◽

Konrad Ehelebe ◽

Florian Dominik Speck ◽

Markus Bierling ◽

Johannes Bender ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Proton Exchange Membrane ◽

Water Electrolysis ◽

Membrane Electrode Assembly ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Membrane Electrode ◽

Bipolar Electrode ◽

Electrode Interface ◽

Exchange Membrane ◽

Electrode Membrane ◽

Pem Water Electrolyzer

Bipolar membrane|electrode interface water electrolyzers (BPEMWE) were found to outperform a proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzer reference in a similar membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design based on individual porous...

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