(480e) Novel Porous Transport Layers for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Water Electrolyzers

A significant barrier to the growth of the hydrogen economy is reducing the cost of hydrogen.¹ Hence, the US DOE’s hydrogen earth shot initiative aims to achieve the cost target of $1 per 1kg of hydrogen in 1 decade.² Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) is a vital electrochemical technology for generating clean hydrogen. PEMWEs still requires a significant reduction in capital and operational cost to meet the cost targets. Thrifting iridium to reduce the cost of PEMWE affects the efficiency due to poor contact with the porous transport layers (PTLs) and decreased catalyst utilization.³ Moreover, PTLs morphology also controls the water transport to the catalyst layer while simultaneously removing the generated O₂ bubbles, affecting mass transport.⁴ Optimal PTL morphology can improve the interface and the mass transport, increasing the efficiency of PEMWE and thereby reducing the cost.⁵ This work presents the development of novel PTLs architectures for PEMWE to improve performance. Hierarchical porous PTLs are fabricated by adding microporous layers (MPLs) through the deposition of conductive powder with a binder by decal transfer. The wettability of the MPL is controlled by changing the loading and the type of binder. Electrochemical evaluation of the PTLs, including the polarization curve and contact resistance, will be presented to elucidate the effect of the PTLs on the performance. In addition, neutron imaging of an operating PEMWE will be presented to study the impact of the hierarchical PTLs on water management.

Acknowledgment

This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office through the H2NEW consortium.

References

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