We present a fabrication process for hierarchical (Ni,Co)0.85Se sheets, achieving efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity with a 10 mA cm−2 current density at an overpotential of 290 mV. Porous architecture and doping improve kinetics, supported by DFT calculations. This approach offers insights into designing stable, high-performance OER catalysts.

The performance of a water electrolyser (WE) depends on several aspects, many of which are located in the powerhouse of the cell, namely, the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The anion exchange membrane WE (AEMWE) is a promising technology; however, both activity and stability must be further developed to surpass the current dominant WE technologies. Herein, we review aspects related to MEA development for anion exchange membrane water electrolysers, covering materials and techniques from the perspective of stability and activity. The gas diffusion layer (GDL) and the microporous layer (MPL) are often combined into a single MEA component, which places great importance on its composition. This composite layer has the greatest impact of any single component on cell performance, as the physical architecture of the GDL/MPL influences the overpotential related to activation, ohmic, and mass transport. The purpose of this review is to serve as an executive summary of the literature related to MEAs for AEMWEs for researchers and industry professionals who seek to further the state of the art.

Anion-exchange membranes (AEMs), known for enabling the high conductivity of hydroxide anions through dense polymeric structures, are pivotal components in fuel cells, electrolyzers, and other important electrochemical systems. This paper unveils an unprecedented utilization of AEMs in an electrochemical oxygen separation process, a new technology able to generate enriched oxygen from an O2/N2 mixture using a small voltage input. We demonstrate a first-of-its-kind AEM-based electrochemical device that operates under mild conditions, is free of liquid electrolytes or sweep gases, and produces oxygen of over 96% purity. Additionally, we develop and apply a one-dimensional time-dependent and isothermal model, which accurately captures the unique operational dynamics of our device, demonstrates good agreement with the experimental data, and allows us to explore the device’s potential capabilities. This novel technology has far-reaching applications in many industrial processes, medical oxygen therapy, and other diverse fields while reducing operational complexity and environmental impact, thereby paving the way for sustainable on-site oxygen generation.

Anionic exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolyzers are emerging as a cost-effective technology for green hydrogen production. However, state-of-the-art AEM electrolyzers rely on platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Currently, PGM-free HER catalysts exhibit inadequate activity and stability at high current densities in electrolyzer environments. Here, we report a simple electrodeposition method for a self-supported Ni4Mo–MoOx catalyst. This catalyst exhibits remarkable HER activity, as demonstrated both in three-electrode cells as well as in prototype AEM electrolyzers. In particular, the catalyst enables AEM electrolyzers to operate stably at current densities as high as 3 A cm−2, which had not been reported for a non-PGM HER catalyst. The performance (2 V@3 A cm−2) is comparable to the benchmark Pt/C, whereas the stability is even higher. Characterization and particularly operando X-ray diffraction and absorption spectroscopy reveal that the catalyst is an unconventional tetragonal Ni4Mo with a D1a superlattice whose surface contains in situ formed MoOx species. The cooperative action of MoOx and Ni4Mo enhances the volmer step of HER, attributing to the superior activity.

The production, conversion and storage of energy based on electrocatalysis, mainly assisted by oxygen evolution reaction (OER), plays a crucial role in alkaline water electrolyzers (AWEs) and fuel cells. Nevertheless, the insufficient availability of highly efficient catalyst materials at a reasonable cost that overcome the sluggish electrochemical kinetics of the OER is one of the significant obstacles. Herein, we report a fast and facile synthesis of vapor phase deposition of dual-phase nickel sulfide (Ni-sulfide) using low-temperature annealing in the presence of H2S and demonstrated as an efficient catalyst for OER to address the issues with sluggish electrochemical kinetics. The dual-phase Ni-sulfide structures consist of densely packed 10–50 μm microcrystals with 40–50 individual dual-phase layers, such as NiS and Ni7S6. As an electrocatalyst, the dual-phase Ni-sulfide exhibits excellent OER activity by achieving a current density of 10 mA/cm2 at an overpotential (η10) of 0.29 V and excellent electrochemical stability over 50 h. Besides, the Ni-sulfide displays considerable electrochemical robustness in alkaline conditions and forms OER-active Ni-oxide/hydroxide species during the process. Using an energy-efficient synthesis method, the fabricated unique crystalline nanodesign of dual-phase Ni-sulfide could open new pathways for the controlled synthesis of a high-efficiency group of electrocatalysts for a long-time stable electrochemical catalytic activity.

The development of anion-exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) has recently accelerated due to synergistic improvements yielding highly conductive membranes, stable ionomers, and enhanced alkaline electrocatalysts. However, cell durability, especially under realistic conditions, still poses a major challenge. Herein, we employ low-loadings of Pt-free Pd-based catalysts in the anode of AEMFCs and elucidate potential degradation mechanisms impacting long-term performance under conditions analogous to the real-world (high current density, H2–air (albeit CO2-free), and intermittent operation). Our high-performing AEMFCs achieve impressive performance with power densities approaching 1 W cm−2 and current densities up to 3.5 A cm−2. Over a 200 h period of continuous operation in H2–air at a current density of 600 mA cm−2, our model Pd/C–CeO2 anode cell exhibits record stability (∼30 μV h−1 degradation) compared to the literature and up to 6× better stability than our Pd/C and commercial Pt/C anode cells. Following an 8 h shutdown, the Pd/C–CeO2 anode cell was restarted and continued for an additional 300 h with a higher degradation rate of ∼600 μV h−1. Thorough in situ evaluations and post-stability analyses provide insights into potential degradation mechanisms to be expected during extended operation under more realistic conditions and provide mitigation strategies to enable the widespread development of highly durable AEMFCs.

Anion-exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) have gained significant attention for their ability to utilize precious-metal-free catalysts and environmentally friendly fluorine-free hydrocarbon polymeric membranes. In this study, we identify and quantify the sources of performance losses in operando AEMWEs using an innovative approach based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and MATLAB-based impedance spectroscopy genetic programming. Using this approach, we move beyond conventional equivalent circuit models to develop a proper and analytical model of the distribution function of relaxation times (DFRT), enabling a deeper analysis of Faradaic and non-Faradaic processes. We apply this framework to isolate the critical processes─ohmic, ionic transport, charge transfer, and mass transfer─across various conditions, including KOH concentration, dry cathode operation mode with different anode electrolytes (KOH, K2CO3, and pure water), cell temperature, and membrane type. Our results indicate a considerable performance reduction as the KOH concentration in the anode decreases, primarily due to the relatively high ionic transport resistance. Our observations show that the performance of dry cathode operation with KOH in the anode yields a comparable performance to dual-side electrolyte feeding due to sufficient water back-diffusion from the anode, which efficiently maintains cathode hydration. Conversely, using pure water as an electrolyte in the anode with a dry cathode significantly increases cell resistances and compromises ionic transport, underscoring the urgent need for highly conductive ionomeric materials and strategies. These insights indicate that using DFRT to evaluate the AEMWE operation by separating and associating the electrochemical phenomena could simplify system design while enabling more efficient generation of dry, pure hydrogen and advancing the technology toward commercial application.

An operando anion-exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) was analyzed via artificial intelligence. Using impedance spectroscopy genetic programming (ISGP), we quantified the resistances of the various physical processes occurring in the system for the first time providing valuable information to the AEMFC community with wider applicability to other electrochemical process.

In the pursuit of utilizing renewable energy sources for green hydrogen (H2) production, alkaline water electrolysis has emerged as a key technology. To improve the reaction rates of overall water electrolysis and simplify electrode manufacturing, development of bifunctional electrocatalysts is of great relevance. Herein, CoPBO/Co3O4 is reported as a binary composite catalyst comprising amorphous (CoPBO) and crystalline (Co3O4) phases as a high-performing bifunctional electrocatalyst for alkaline water electrolysis. Owing to the peculiar properties of CoPBO and Co3O4, such as complementing Gibbs free energy values for H-adsorption (ΔGH) and relatively smaller difference in their work functions (ΔΦ), the composite exhibits H2 spillover (HS) mechanism to facilitate the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The outcome is manifested in the form of a low HER overpotential of 65 mV (at 10 mA cm−2). Moreover, an abundant amount of surface oxygen vacancies (Ov) are observed in the same CoPBO/Co3O4 composite that facilitates oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as well, leading to a mere 270 mV OER overpotential (at 10 mA cm−2). The present work showcases the possibilities to strategically design non-noble composite catalysts that combine the advantages of HS phenomenon as well as Ov to achieve new record performances in alkaline water electrolysis.

In the quest to harness renewable energy sources for green hydrogen production, alkaline water electrolysis has emerged as a pivotal technology. Enhancing the reaction rates of overall water electrolysis and streamlining electrode manufacturing necessitate the development of bifunctional and cost-effective electrocatalysts. With this aim, a complex compound electrocatalyst in the form of cobalt–sulfo–boride (Co–S–B) was fabricated using a simple chemical reduction method and tested for overall alkaline water electrolysis. A nanocrystalline form of Co–S–B displayed a combination of porous and nanoflake-like morphology with a high surface area. In comparison to Co–B and Co–S, the Co–S–B electrocatalyst exhibits better bifunctional characteristics requiring lower overpotentials of 144 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction and 280 mV for oxygen evolution reaction to achieve 10 mA/cm2 in an alkaline electrolyte. The improved Co–S–B performance is attributed to the synergistic effect of sulfur and boron on cobalt, which was experimentally confirmed through various material characterization tools. Tafel slope, electrochemical surface area, turnover frequency, and charge transfer resistance further endorse the active nature of the Co–S–B electrocatalyst. The robustness of the developed electrocatalyst was validated through a 50 h chronoamperometric stability test, along with a recyclability test involving 10,000 cycles of linear sweep voltammetry. Furthermore, Co–S–B was tested in an alkaline zero-gap water electrolyzer, reaching 1 A/cm2 at 2.06 V and 60 °C. The significant activity and stability demonstrated by the cobalt-sulfo-boride compound render it as a promising and cost-effective electrode material for commercial alkaline water electrolyzers.

Anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE) is a potentially cost-effective technology for green hydrogen production. Although the normal current densities of AEMWEs are below 3 A·cm-2, operating them at higher current densities represents an efficient, but little-explored approach to decrease the total cost of hydrogen production. We show here that a benchmark AEMWE has an operational lifetime of only seconds at an ultrahigh current density of 10 A·cm-2. By using a more conductive and robust AEM, and judicious choices of ionomers, catalyst, and porous transport layer, we have developed AEMWEs that stably operate at 10 A·cm-2 with extended lifetimes. The optimized AEMWE has an operational lifetime of more than 800 hours, a 5-order magnetite improvement over the current benchmark. The cell voltage is only 2.3 V at 10 A·cm-2, comparable to those of the state-of-the-art devices operating at current densities lower than 3 A·cm-2. This work demonstrates the potential of ultrahigh current density AEMWEs.

Defect-rich transition-metal oxide electrocatalysts hold great promise for alkaline water electrolysis due to their enhanced activity and stability. This study presents a new strategy that significantly improve the OER activity of Co-oxide nanosheets through incorporation of B and P (B/P-CoOx NS), eventually leading to abundant surface defects and oxygen vacancies. The B/P-CoOx NS demonstrates low overpotential of 220 mV to achieve 10 mA/cm2. The electrochemical and kinetic studies coupled with conventional morphological and structural characterizations, reveal that various crystalline defects like vacancies, dislocations, twin planes, and grain boundaries play crucial roles in promoting the OH− ion adsorption, the formation of intermediates, and the desorption of oxygen molecules. The industrial viability of the developed electrocatalyst is substantiated through assessments under harsh industrial conditions of 6 M KOH at 60 °C in a zero-gap single-cell alkaline electrolyzer which achieves 1 A/cm2 at 1.95 V. Chronoamperometry tests (100 h) highlight remarkable robustness of the electrocatalyst. This work establishes a new strategy to fabricate defect-rich OER electrocatalysts, setting a precedent to achieve better OER rates with non-noble materials.

Anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) have an intrinsic advantage over acidic proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers through their ability to use inexpensive, stable materials such as stainless steel (SS) to catalyze the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER). As such, the study of active oxide layers on SS has garnered great interest. Potential cycling is a means to create such active oxide layers in situ as they are readily formed in alkaline solutions when exposed to elevated potentials. Cycling conditions in the literature are rife with unexplained variations, and a complete account of how these variations affect the activity and constitution of SS oxide layers remains unreported, along with their influence on AEMWE performance. In this paper, we seek to fill this gap in the literature by strategically cycling SS felt (SSF) electrodes under different scan rates and ranges. The SSF anodes were rapidly activated within the first 50 cycles, as shown by the 10-fold decline in charge transfer resistance, and the subsequent 1000 cycles tuned the metal oxide surface composition. Cycling the Ni redox couple (RC) increases Ni content, which is further enhanced by lowering the cycling rate, while cycling the Fe RC increases Cr content. Fair OER activity was uncovered through cycling the Ni RC, while Fe cycling produced SSF electrodes active toward both the OER and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This indicates that inert SSF electrodes can be activated to become efficient OER and HER electrodes. To this effect, a single-cell AEMWE without any traditional catalyst or ionomer generated 1.0 A cm–2 at 1.94 V ± 13.3 mV with an SSF anode, showing a fair performance for a cell free of critical raw materials.

Direct electrochemical seawater splitting is a renewable, scalable, and potentially economic approach for green hydrogen production. However, issues related to low durability caused by complex ions in seawater pose great challenges for its industrialization. In this review, a mechanistic analysis of durability issues of electrolytic seawater splitting is discussed. We critically analyze the development of seawater electrolysis and identify the durability challenges at both the anode and cathode. Particular emphasis is given to elucidating rational strategies for designing electrocatalysts/electrodes/interfaces with long lifetimes in realistic seawater including inducing passivating anion layers, preferential OH– adsorption, employing anti-corrosion materials, fabricating protective layers, immobilizing Cl– on the surface of electrocatalysts, tailoring Cl– adsorption sites, inhibiting binding of OH– to Mg2+ and Ca2+, inhibiting adherence of Mg and Ca hydroxide precipitation, and co-electrosynthesis of nano-sized Mg hydroxides. Synthesis methods of electrocatalysts/electrodes and innovations in electrolyzer are also discussed. Furthermore, the prospects for developing seawater splitting technologies for clean hydrogen generation are summarized. We found that researchers have changed the attitude towards Cl– ions from “hate” to accept to utilize, as well as more attention to cathodic reaction and electrolyzers, which is conducive to accelerate the commercialization of seawater electrolysis.

Green hydrogen produced via water electrolysis powered by renewable energy sources promises the decarbonization of large sectors of the economy. Despite alkaline environments that enable use of non-noble, abundant materials, state-of-the-art anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) uses noble-metal-based catalysts. Developing non-noble-metal-based anodes would enhance the competitiveness of AEMWEs. Herein, an anode fabricated by hydrothermal deposition of binder-free NiFe-LDH onto Raney Ni (RNi) substrates is described. The introduced platinum-group-metal-free AEMWEs display high performance of 1 A cm–2 at 1.9 V cell voltage. Physicochemical characterization highlights the successful combination of NiFe-LDH with RNi applying a scalable synthesis offering feasibility to fabricate active and durable electrodes for AEMWEs.

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) offers a green hydrogen production method that eliminates the need for platinum group metals (PGM) as electrocatalysts. This study employs a COMSOL® 6.0 model to simulate a 1×1 cmNi fibre Raney® Ni X37-50RT NiFeO SS316L fibre AEMWE membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The membrane is set at a thickness of , while the anodic and cathodic porous transport layers (PTL) are modelled with a thickness of , each having an average porosity of 0.70. The halfcell overpotentials are experimentally measured to validate the halfcell model in a threeelectrode setup consisting of (working electrode) AGAR-Ag/AgCl Ptwire (counter electrode). Two freshly prepared MEAs validated the (i) base case and (ii) sensitivity analysis models. The base case model validated the MEA results at 20 °C and 1 atm in 1M KOH electrolyte feed at 1.56 ml min−1 cm−2. The five parameters studied with the sensitivity analysis revealed the most influential parameters based on area-specific resistance (ASR) change in the following order (＋ and indicate increase and decrease in ASR, respectively): KOH concentration (97%), membrane thickness (＋ 9%), temperature (4%), cathode feed type (0.5%), and KOH flow rate (0.5%).

Anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE) is a rising technology that offers potential advantages in cost and scalability over proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) technology. However, AEMWEs that stably operate in pure water still employ platinum-group-metal (PGM) catalysts, especially at the cathode. Here, by using an appropriate ionomer at both the anode and cathode, as well as a new hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst, we achieve sustained pure-water AEM water electrolysis using only PGM-free electrocatalysts. Our optimized AEMWE can operate stably for more than 550 h at 1 A/cm2 with a cell voltage of 1.82 V. This performance competes favorably over the state-of-the-art, PGM-containing, AEMWEs. Unexpectedly, we find that the cathode performance is the bottleneck in pure-water AEMWE. The application of a cathode ionomer can lower the cell voltage by up to 1.4 V at 1 A/cm2. Our work reveals the importance of ionomers for pure-water AEMWEs and identifies cathode improvement as a key area for future work.

Hydrogen production by direct seawater electrolysis is an alternative technology to conventional freshwater electrolysis, mainly owing to the vast abundance of seawater reserves on earth. However, the lack of robust, active, and selective electrocatalysts that can withstand the harsh and corrosive saline conditions of seawater greatly hinders its industrial viability. Herein, a series of amorphous transition-metal phospho-borides, namely Co-P-B, Ni-P-B, and Fe-P-B are prepared by simple chemical reduction method and screened for overall alkaline seawater electrolysis. Co-P-B is found to be the best of the lot, requiring low overpotentials of ≈270 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), ≈410 mV for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and an overall voltage of 2.50 V to reach a current density of 2 A cm⁻² in highly alkaline natural seawater. Furthermore, the optimized electrocatalyst shows formidable stability after 10,000 cycles and 30 h of chronoamperometric measurements in alkaline natural seawater without any chlorine evolution, even at higher current densities. A detailed understanding of not only HER and OER but also chlorine evolution reaction (ClER) on the Co-P-B surface is obtained by computational analysis, which also sheds light on the selectivity and stability of the catalyst at high current densities.

The electrochemical conversion of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural, especially its reduction, is an attractive green production pathway for carbonaceous e-chemicals. We demonstrate the reduction of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural to 5-Methylfurfurylalcohol under strongly alkaline reaction environments over oxide-derived Cu bimetallic electrocatalysts. We investigate whether and how the surface catalysis of the MOx phases tune the catalytic selectivity of oxide-derived Cu with respect to the 2-electron hydrogenation to 2.5-Bishydroxymethylfuran and the (2 + 2)-electron hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis to 5-Methylfurfurylalcohol. We provide evidence for a kinetic competition between the evolution of H2 and the 2-electron hydrogenolysis of 2.5-Bishydroxymethylfuran to 5-Methylfurfurylalcohol and discuss its mechanistic implications. Finally, we demonstrate that the ability to conduct 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural reduction to 5-Methylfurfurylalcohol in alkaline conditions over oxide-derived Cu/MOx Cu foam electrodes enable an efficiently operating alkaline exchange membranes electrolyzer, in which the cathodic 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural valorization is coupled to either alkaline oxygen evolution anode or to oxidative 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural valorization.

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) is an attractive emerging green hydrogen technology. However, the scaling of trends in activity of anode catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) from a liquid-electrolyte, three-electrode environment to the two-electrode single-cell format has remained poorly considered. Herein, we critically investigate the scaling of kinetic and catalytic properties of a family of highly active Ni foam (NF) supported, anion (A–)-tuned NiFe(-A–)-OER catalysts. Trends in catalytic activity suggest impressive improvements of up to 91-fold in three-electrode setups (3LC) compared to uncoated NF. While we demonstrate the successful qualitative structure–performance tunability in a 5 cm2 AEMWE single cell, we also find serious limitations in the quantitative predictability of three-electrode setups for single-cell performance trends. Cell environments appear to equalize the cell performances of designer catalysts, which has important ramifications for electrode development. We succeed in analyzing and discussing some of these translation limitations in terms of previously overlooked effects summarized in the activity improvement factor f.

Determination of the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) is essential in electrocatalysis to provide surface normalized intrinsic catalytic activity. Conventionally, ECSAs of metal oxides and hydroxides are estimated using double layer capacitance (Cdl) measured at nonfaradaic potential windows. However, in the case of Ni-based hydroxide catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the nonfaradaic potential region before the Ni(II) oxidation peak is nonconductive, which hinders accurate electrochemical measurements. To overcome this problem, in this work, we have investigated the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) at reactive OER potentials to extract the capacitance that is hypothesized to arise due to reactive OER intermediates (O*, OH*, OOH*) adsorbed on the catalyst surface. This allowed the estimation of ECSA and intrinsic activity of NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH), the most active, state-of-the-art OER electrocatalyst in alkaline media. We analyzed the OER adsorbates capacitance (Ca) on NiFe LDH and Ni(OH)2 at different electrode potentials and identified a suitable potential range for accurate ECSA evaluation. Finally, we validated our method and the choice of potential range through rigorous catalyst loading and support studies.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are promising catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) given their modular chemistry and ease of synthesis. Herein, we report a facile strategy for inclusion of oxygen vacancies (VO) using Ce as a promoter in Co–Ni LDHs that significantly enhances the activity for OER. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) uncovers an increase in octahedral Co sites and VO upon addition of Ce that promotes the transformation of the LDH into an oxyhydroxide-reactive phase more readily. The presence of an OER-active oxyhydroxide phase along with the generation of VO facilitated by the partial reduction of Ce4+ to Ce3+ under oxidizing conditions results in a better electrochemical activity of Ce-doped electrocatalysts. Density functional theory calculations further corroborate the in situ XAS experimental findings by showcasing that the presence of both Ce and VO reduces the free-energy barrier of the rate-limiting OH* deprotonation step during OER. This work showcases how an enhanced understanding of the role of VO promoters in LDH electrocatalysts can provide insights for future catalyst design in anodic reactions.

Exploring an active and cost-effective electrocatalyst alternative to carbon-supported platinum nanoparticles for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) have remained elusive to date. Here, we report a catalyst based on platinum single atoms (SAs) doped into the hetero-interfaced Ru/RuO2 support (referred to as Pt-Ru/RuO2), which features a low HER overpotential, an excellent stability and a distinctly enhanced cost-based activity compared to commercial Pt/C and Ru/C in 1 M KOH. Advanced physico-chemical characterizations disclose that the sluggish water dissociation is accelerated by RuO2 while Pt SAs and the metallic Ru facilitate the subsequent H* combination. Theoretical calculations correlate with the experimental findings. Furthermore, Pt-Ru/RuO2 only requires 1.90 V to reach 1 A cm−2 and delivers a high price activity in the anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C. This research offers a feasible guidance for developing the noble metal-based catalysts with high performance and low cost toward practical H2 production.