Pathways to ultra-low platinum group metal catalyst loading in proton exchange membrane electrolyzers

• Published in: Catalysis today 2016-03, Vol.262 (C), p.121-132
• Main Authors: Ayers, Katherine E., Renner, Julie N., Danilovic, Nemanja, Wang, Jia X., Zhang, Yu, Maric, Radenka, Yu, Haoran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalyst; Core–shell; Electrolysis; Hydrogen; Manufacturing; Platinum
• ISSN: 0920-5861; 1873-4308
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cattod.2015.10.019

•Multiple methods can reduce catalyst use for proton exchange membrane electrolyzers.•Core–shell catalyst powders provide higher activity than traditional nanopowders.•Reactive spray deposition enables thin catalyst films with high activity.•Reactive spray deposition has the potential to form core–shell structures. Hydrogen is one of the world's most important chemicals, with global production of about 50billion kg/year. Currently, hydrogen is mainly produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal, producing CO2. Water electrolysis is a promising technology for fossil-free, CO2-free hydrogen production. Proton exchange membrane (PEM)-based water electrolysis also eliminates the need for caustic electrolyte, and has been proven at megawatt scale. However, a major cost driver is the electrode, specifically the cost of electrocatalysts used to improve the reaction efficiency, which are applied at high loadings (>3mg/cm2 total platinum group metal (PGM) content). Core–shell catalysts have shown improved activity for hydrogen production, enabling reduced catalyst loadings, while reactive spray deposition techniques (RSDT) have been demonstrated to enable manufacture of catalyst layers more uniformly and with higher repeatability than existing techniques. Core–shell catalysts have also been fabricated with RSDT for fuel cell electrodes with good performance. Manufacturing and materials need to go hand in hand in order to successfully fabricate electrodes with ultra-low catalyst loadings (