Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis for Green Hydrogen Production

R&D Focus Areas:
Direct hydrogen carrier production, Electrolysis

Lead Organisation:
University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Partners:
Not applicable

Status:
Active

Start date:
July 2022

Completion date:
June 2025

Key contacts:
Professor Chuan Zhao: chuan.zhao@unsw.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$550,000 – Australian Research Council (Discovery Project)

Project summary description:
Low-cost and robust water electrolysis technology is a cornerstone towards the success of the hydrogen economy. This project aims to develop next generation anion exchange membrane water electrolyser technologies for low-cost and high-efficiency clean hydrogen production and renewable energy storage. Novel non-precious transition metal-based catalysts with high intrinsic activity, large surface area and super-hydrophilic surfaces will be developed, and their mechanism and stability within membrane electrode assemblies understood by using operando spectroscopy, electrochemistry and 3D X-ray imaging characterisations. An efficient anion exchange membrane water electrolyser prototype made entirely of non-precious materials is to be devised.

Related publications and key links:
Zhao Group page:
https://www.chemistry.unsw.edu.au/our-research/our-research-groups/zhao-group/clean-energy

Publications:

Rong C; Wang S; Shen X; Jia C; Sun Q; Zhang Q; Zhao C, 2024, ‘Defect-balanced active and stable Co3O4−x for proton exchange membrane water electrolysis at ampere-level current density’, Energy and Environmental Science, 17, pp. 4196 – 4204, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d4ee00977k

Zhang Y; Dastafkan K; Zhao Q; Li J; Zhao C; Liu G, 2024, ‘Stable tetravalent Ni species generated by reconstruction of FeB-wrapped NiMoO pre-catalysts enable efficient water oxidation at large current densities’, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 341, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2023.123297

Rong C; Dastafkan K; Wang Y; Zhao C, 2023, ‘Breaking the Activity and Stability Bottlenecks of Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution Reactions in Acids’, Advanced Materials, 35, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202211884

Dastafkan K; Shen X; Hocking RK; Meyer Q; Zhao C, 2023, ‘Monometallic interphasic synergy via nano-hetero-interfacing for hydrogen evolution in alkaline electrolytes’, Nature Communications, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36100-3

Zhao T; Wang S; Jia C; Rong C; Su Z; Dastafkan K; Zhang Q; Zhao C, 2023, ‘Cooperative Boron and Vanadium Doping of Nickel Phosphides for Hydrogen Evolution in Alkaline and Anion Exchange Membrane Water/Seawater Electrolyzers’, Small, 19, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.202208076

Xiao Y; Dastafkan K; Su Z; Rong C; Zhao C, 2023, ‘Decoupling the contributions of industrially relevant conditions to the stability of binary and ternary FeNi-based catalysts for alkaline water oxidation’, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 11, pp. 19418 – 19426, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d3ta03905f

[1] Zhao, S. Wang, Y. Li, C. Jia, Z. Su, D. Hao, B. Ni, Q. Zhang, C. Zhao, Heterostructured V‐Doped Ni2P/Ni12P5 Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution in Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers, Small. (2022) 2204758.

[2] C. Rong, X. Shen, Y. Wang, L. Thomsen, T. Zhao, Y. Li, X. Lu, R. Amal, C. Zhao, Electronic Structure Engineering of Single‐Atom Ru Sites via Co–N4 Sites for Bifunctional pH‐Universal Water Splitting, Adv. Mater. (2022) 2110103.

[3] E. Quattrocchi, B. Py, A. Maradesa, Q. Meyer, C. Zhao, F. Ciucci, Deconvolution of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data using the deep-neural-network-enhanced distribution of relaxation times, Electrochim. Acta. 439 (2023) 141499.

[4] Y. Xia, Y. Cheng, R. Wang, Z. Meng, Q. Meyer, C. Zhao, H. Zhang, R. Luo, Y. Li, H. Tang, Porous nanosheet composite with multi-type active centers as an efficient and stable oxygen electrocatalyst in alkaline and acid conditions, Sci. China Mater. (2022) 1–10.

[5] Y. Xiao, K. Dastafkan, Y. Li, T. Zhao, Z. Su, H. Qi, C. Zhao, Oxygen Corrosion Engineering of Nonprecious Ternary Metal Hydroxides toward Oxygen Evolution Reaction, ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 10 (2022) 8597–8604.

[6] Q. Meyer, S. Liu, Y. Li, C. Zhao, Operando detection of oxygen reduction reaction kinetics of Fe–N–C catalysts in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, J. Power Sources. 533 (2022) 231058.

[7] S. Wang, X. Liu, X. Chen, K. Dastafkan, Z.-H. Fu, X. Tan, Q. Zhang, C. Zhao, Super-exchange effect induced by early 3d metal doping on NiFe2O4 (0 0 1) surface for oxygen evolution reaction, J. Energy Chem. 78 (2023) 21–29.

[8] Q. Meyer, S. Liu, K. Ching, Y. Da Wang, C. Zhao, Operando monitoring of the evolution of triple-phase boundaries in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, J. Power Sources. 557 (2023) 232539.

[9] Y. Da Wang, Q. Meyer, K. Tang, J.E. McClure, R.T. White, S.T. Kelly, M.M. Crawford, F. Iacoviello, D.J.L. Brett, P.R. Shearing, Large-scale physically accurate modelling of real proton exchange membrane fuel cell with deep learning, Nat. Commun. 14 (2023) 745.

[10] Y. Wang, H. Arandiyan, S.S. Mofarah, X. Shen, S. Bartlett, P. Koshy, C. Sorrell, H. Sun, C. Pozo-Gonzalo, K. Dastafkan, Stacking Faults Defect-Rich MoNi Alloy for Ultrahigh-Performance Hydrogen Evolution, (2023).

[11] K. Dastafkan, X. Shen, R.K. Hocking, Q. Meyer, C. Zhao, Monometallic interphasic synergy via nano-hetero-interfacing for hydrogen evolution in alkaline electrolytes, Nat. Commun. 14 (2023) 547.

[12] M. Fan, Z. Tao, Q. Zhao, J. Li, G. Liu, C. Zhao, Molecular Copper Phthalocyanine and FeOOH Modified BiVO4 Photoanodes for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation, Adv. Mater. Technol. (2023) 2201835.

[13] J. Müller‐Hülstede, L.M. Uhlig, H. Schmies, D. Schonvogel, Q. Meyer, Y. Nie, C. Zhao, J. Vidakovic, P. Wagner, Towards the Reduction of Pt Loading in High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells–Effect of Fe− N− C in Pt‐Alloy Cathodes, ChemSusChem. (2022) e202202046.

Higher degree studies supported:
One Postdoctoral researcher and one PhD student are to be supported by this project.

 

Reviewed: July 2024