Investigation of the Durability of a Water Electrolysis Cell with Iridium Fiber Anode Against Voltage Fluctuations Simulating Wind Power

Abstract

Durability of a water electrolysis cell against the voltage fluctuations is focused on in this study. An accelerated potential fluctuation test was performed for a newly developed MEA with Iridium fiber anode in our lab. In the first 40 sets of the test, no positive effect of the fiber structure was seen, and rather the fast current loss related to gas stagnation was observed. That was assumed to be owing to the coverage on inter-fiber pores by extra Nafion® ionomer. However, in the latter 40 sets, the expansion of the anode layer was confirmed by SEM images, and the rate of gas stagnation was decreased. Furthermore, the recovery of I-V performance after the rest period was sufficiently good, and almost no irreversible degradation was considered. Therefore, the Iridium fiber anode most likely has high durability against the increased internal pressure in the anode layer derived by stagnated gases.