Abstract
Hydrogen (H2) is an important energy carrier for the development and maintenance of a low-carbon economy through sustainable energy generation. Direct seawater electrolysis (DSWE), which produces hydrogen using seawater, an infinite resource, as an electrolyte, is a very promising process. However, hydroxide ions generated from the hydrogen evolution reaction at the cathode cause precipitation of multi-valent cations contained in seawater, which blocks the active sites of the catalyst and induces high cell voltage. In this study, a high-performance bipolar membrane (BPM) was developed to effectively prevent the formation of inorganic deposits in the direct seawater electrolysis process. BPM has a structure in which a cation-exchange layer and an anion-exchange layer are superimposed and the characteristic of generating H+ and OH- ions by decomposing water molecules under reverse bias conditions. Therefore, the BPM has been actively used to produce acids and bases from salts, and its use has recently been expanding in energy conversion processes such as a fuel cell. In this study, a high-performance BPM was fabricated using woven fabric support and a specially designed transition metal-based catalyst that can significantly improve water decomposition performance. The prepared membrane had an efficient water-splitting catalyst and a 3D bipolar interface, showing excellent water-splitting capability and interfacial stability. In addition, it was confirmed that using the prepared BPM greatly contributes to stable hydrogen production when applied to the DSWE process. This work was supported in part by the NRF grants (NRF-2022M3H4A4097521) as well as by the framework of the research and development program of the KIER (No. C2-2473).
Published Version
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