Development of Pore-Filling Anion Exchange Membranes for Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis: Enhancement of Alkaline Stability

Abstract

Water electrolysis is a process that uses electricity to decompose water into oxygen and hydrogen. There are several types of ion exchange membrane can be used, anion exchange membrane, proton exchange membrane and bipolar membrane for water electrolysis. Alkaline based water electrolysis has several advantages to use non-precious electrocatalysts. However, the development of low resistance and durable anion-exchange membranes is of importance. In this study, several anion-exchange membranes were developed to enhance alkaline stability. Pore-filling anion exchange composite membranes with different contents of cross-linkers were prepared by mixing an electrolyte having good anion conducting ability. The mixture of monomers into a porous polyethylene (PE) substrate were polymerized by UV curing. The pore-filling reinforced composite membranes have been investigated in terms of good chemical stability properties, in particular, the variation of conductivity and mechanical strength in 1 M KOH at 60 oC. Characterization in terms of ion exchange capacity, water uptake, swelling ratio, and mechanical strength were also investigated. Acknowledgments This research was supported in part by "Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science and Technology Development (Project No. PJ016253)" Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea, by the New and Renewable Energy of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea (No. 20213030040520) and by 2022 Green Convergence Professional Manpower Training Program of the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute funded by the Ministry of Environment.