Issue 11, 2019

Ion-solvating membranes as a new approach towards high rate alkaline electrolyzers

Abstract

Energy efficient and cost efficient water electrolysis is essential for the large scale implementation of renewable energy. The two commercial low temperature electrolyzer technologies each suffer from serious drawbacks. The proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers remain expensive and depend strongly on the scarce metal iridium. The alkaline electrolyzers suffer from a large footprint due to low rate capability. Here we present an approach to make an alkaline electrolyzer perform like a PEM electrolyzer by means of an ion-solvating membrane. A long lasting effort to replace the state-of-the-art thick porous diaphragm by an anion exchange membrane has not proven successful. The ion-solvating membrane represents a third way. Demonstration cells based on KOH doped polybenzimidazole membranes and nickel based electrodes exhibited 1700 mA cm−2 at 1.8 V. This is far exceeding what has previously been achieved with membranes in alkaline environments without platinum group metal catalysts, and is comparable to state-of-the-art PEM electrolyzers.

Graphical abstract: Ion-solvating membranes as a new approach towards high rate alkaline electrolyzers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
13 Marts 2019
Accepted
03 Jūl. 2019
First published
22 Jūl. 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Energy Environ. Sci., 2019,12, 3313-3318

Ion-solvating membranes as a new approach towards high rate alkaline electrolyzers

M. R. Kraglund, M. Carmo, G. Schiller, S. A. Ansar, D. Aili, E. Christensen and J. O. Jensen, Energy Environ. Sci., 2019, 12, 3313 DOI: 10.1039/C9EE00832B

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