A Flow-through Electrode for Superior Water Splitting by Mitigating
Bubble Induced Overpotential
Abstract
Bubble evolution induced overpotential for hydrogen production by water
electrolysis is an important issue and the generated gas bubbles will
cover the internal/external surface of the electrode. Herein, a
flow-through electrode loaded with Co-based nanosheets is presented.
Under the condition of flow-through mode, the catalysts can be
adequately exposed because the generated bubbles can be timely removed
from the catalyst surface. The overpotential can be reduced by about 100
mV for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 57 mV for oxygen evolution
reaction (OER) under the condition of 300 mA cm-2 and electrolyte flux
of 339 m3 m-2 h-1. A novel electrolyzer assembled with flow-through
electrode for hydrogen production by alkaline water electrolysis is
conducted. The cell voltage can be decreased by 100 mV at 400 mA cm-2 at
6 M KOH, 338 K, and 1 atm, with the energy of 5 kWh Nm-3 required.