SBIR Phase I: Improving Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers via Novel Electrode Geometry

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过改进一项有前途的水电解技术的关键功能组件，实现非常高效、低成本的绿色制氢。绿色氢是一种化学燃料和原料，没有相关的二氧化碳排放。为了使我们的经济脱碳，绿色氢可以解决我们经济中不易使用清洁电力电气化的部门，例如炼钢、化工、供暖以及航运和航空等重型运输。然而，绿色氢的成本仍然太高，无法大规模采用。与目前最先进的技术相比，该项目开发的纯水电解槽可以显著降低绿色制氢成本：它们只需要水和电作为投入，并且完全由低成本、无毒的材料制成，利用国内供应链。它们是模块化的，既可以开发大型氢气生产设施，也可以开发小型分散系统，例如用于现场操作或加气站。该项目不仅有助于绿色氢的采用，还将阐明活性表面的化学和电化学修饰如何更广泛地用于使电化学反应（如水分解）更有效。SBIR一期项目提出大幅改进阴离子交换膜水电解槽（AEMEL）的关键部件：阳极电极。阳极是析氧反应（OER）的场所，这是电解制氢过程中一个必要但效率低下的步骤。通过改进阳极设计来提高OER动力学，如果转化为商业AEMEL系统，将直接降低绿色氢的成本。本项目旨在用一种更简单的“统一”阳极取代传统的两层阳极，即在多孔传输层（PTL）上涂覆一层复杂的催化剂层，其中PTL被功能化，不再需要催化剂层，并改善反应动力学。在这个项目中，将结合两种方法来功能化PTL表面：增加电化学活性表面积（通过蚀刻，合金化和沉积技术）和增加内在催化OER活性（通过合金化和沉积技术）。这一努力有望显著提高AEMEL的性能和使用寿命，将使用电化学方法进行评估，包括非原位（3电极电池）和原位（在运行的电解槽中）。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to enable very highly-efficient low-cost green hydrogen production by improving a key functional component of a promising water electrolysis technology. Green hydrogen is a chemical fuel and a feedstock with no associated CO2 emissions. In an effort to decarbonize our economy, green hydrogen can address sectors of our economy that are not easily electrified using clean electricity, for example steelmaking, chemicals, heating, and heavy transport such as shipping and aviation. However, the cost of green hydrogen is still too high to prompt large-scale adoption. The pure-water electrolyzers developed in this project can significantly reduce green hydrogen production costs compared to the current state-of-the-art: they require only water and electricity as inputs, and are entirely made of low-cost, non-toxic materials, utilizing domestic supply chains. They are modular, enabling the development of both large hydrogen production facilities and small decentralized systems, e.g., for on-site operations or refueling stations. This project will not only help the adoption of green hydrogen, it will also elucidate how the chemical and electrochemical modifications of active surfaces can more broadly be used to make electrochemical reactions, such as water splitting, more efficient.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to drastically improve a key component of an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMEL): the anode electrode. The anode is the site of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a required but inefficient step during electrolytic hydrogen production. Enhancement of the OER kinetics by improved anode design, if translated to commercial AEMEL systems, would directly lead to a lower cost of green hydrogen. This project aims to replace the conventional two-layer anode, in which a complex catalyst layer is coated on top of a porous transport layer (PTL), with a simpler “unified” anode, in which the PTL is functionalized such that the catalyst layer is no longer necessary and the reaction kinetics are improved. In this project, two approaches to functionalize the PTL surface will be combined: the increase of the electrochemically active surface area (via etching, dealloying, and deposition techniques) and the increase of the intrinsic catalytic OER activity (via alloying and deposition techniques). This effort is expected to result in significantly improved AEMEL performance and lifetime, which will be evaluated using electrochemical methods, both ex situ (3-electrode cell) and in situ (in an operating electrolyzer).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.