Enhanced performance and durability of low catalyst loading PEM water electrolyser based on a short-side chain perfluorosulfonic ionomer

作者：Stefania Siracusano, Vincenzo Baglio, Nicholas van Dijk, Luca Merlo, Antonino Salvatore Aricò · 发表于：Applied Energy · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.09.011 · 被引用次数：223 · 研究领域：Fuel Cells and Related Materials、Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion、Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

Water electrolysis supplied by renewable energy is the foremost technology for producing “green” hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. In addition, the ability to rapidly follow an intermittent load makes electrolysis an ideal solution for grid-balancing caused by differences in supply and demand for energy generation and consumption. Membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) designed for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis, based on a novel short-side chain (SSC) perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membrane, Aquivion®, with various cathode and anode noble metal loadings, were investigated in terms of both performance and durability. Utilizing a nanosized Ir 0.7 Ru 0.3 O x solid solution anode catalyst and a supported Pt/C cathode catalyst, in combination with the Aquivion® membrane, gave excellent electrolysis performances exceeding 3.2 A·cm −2 at 1.8 V terminal cell voltage (∼80% efficiency) at 90 °C in the presence of a total catalyst loading of 1.6 mg⋅cm −2 . A very small loss of efficiency, corresponding to 30 mV voltage increase, was recorded at 3 A⋅cm −2 using a total noble metal catalyst loading of less than 0.5 mg·cm −2 (compared to the industry standard of 2 mg·cm −2 ). Steady-state durability tests, carried out for 1000 h at 1 A⋅cm −2 , showed excellent stability for the MEA with total noble metal catalyst loading of 1.6 mg·cm −2 (cell voltage increase ∼5 μV/h). Moderate degradation rate (cell voltage increase ∼15 μV/h) was recorded for the low loading 0.5 mg·cm ...