Issue 24, 2022

Rational design of integrated electrodes for advancing high-rate alkaline electrolytic hydrogen production

Abstract

The goal of global carbon peak and neutrality calls for the green production of hydrogen via water electrolysis powered by renewables. Alkaline electrolysis cells (AEC) are receiving more attention since they can economically produce hydrogen at a large scale without the need for expensive catalysts. Developing advanced integrated electrodes from earth-abundant materials is crucial for driving this technique, however they suffer from poor catalytic activity and durability under industrial current densities. This review herein focuses on the rational design of integrated electrodes to advance alkaline electrocatalytic hydrogen production (AEHP). The representative strategies are first introduced, including modulating the electronic structure and harnessing the synergy from multi-components for improving activity as well as constructing the tri-phase interfaces with appropriate surface hydrophilic/aerophobic properties. For cost-competitive hydrogen production, the cost-effective scalable production of such integrated electrodes is discussed, which should be simultaneously considered when improving the electrode performance. Moreover, such integrated electrodes could be applied to the emerging water electrolysis systems such as anode-replacing hydrogen production and decoupled AEC for boosting AEHP. Finally, the review provides an outlook of the remaining challenges and emerging research topics in the future, including the standard evaluation of catalytic performance, precise identification of genuine catalytic sites at working conditions, accurate theoretical modeling and AI-assisted catalyst screening, and external-fields coupled AEC, etc. The new insights and knowledge provided regarding these aspects will help fill the existing gaps between scientific communities and industries and open up opportunities for bringing this promising technology into reality.

Graphical abstract: Rational design of integrated electrodes for advancing high-rate alkaline electrolytic hydrogen production

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
24 मार्च 2022
Accepted
15 मई 2022
First published
16 मई 2022

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022,10, 12764-12787

Rational design of integrated electrodes for advancing high-rate alkaline electrolytic hydrogen production

Z. Dong, Z. Jiang, T. Tang, Z. Yao, D. Xue, S. Niu, J. Zhang and J. Hu, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, 10, 12764 DOI: 10.1039/D2TA02374A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements