Enhancing Mass Transfer in Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis by Overlaid Nickel Mesh Substrate
Shiwen Ding, Zhiheng Li, Gaoxin Lin, Linqin Wang, Anrui Dong, Licheng Sun
Abstract
Nickel foam substrate poses significant challenges in anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEM-WE) for green hydrogen production due to its susceptibility to membrane puncture and hindered mass transfer. To address these challenges, this work introduced a one-step overlaying strategy, creating a double-layered nickel mesh substrate for enhancing the performance of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in AEM-WE. The overlaid nickel mesh substrate (e.g., SC 300+60 with sieve counts of 300 and 60) provided a smooth surface to protect the membrane from being punctured and facilitated faster bubble detachment during electrocatalysis in a three-electrode system. In the AEM-WE system, the SC 300+60 substrate demonstrated high current densities of 1.55 A cm –2 (without catalyst) and 5.01 A cm –2 (with NiFe-LDH based catalyst) at 2.0 V and 80 °C, surpassing most reported AME-WE literature data. Overall, this work highlighted the potential of the overlaying strategy for enhancing AEM-WE performance in substrate engineering.