@article{35727, author = {Jason K Lee and Tobias Schuler and Guido Bender and Mayank Sabharwal and Xiong Peng and Adam Z Weber and Nemanja Danilovic}, title = {Interfacial engineering via laser ablation for high-performing PEM water electrolysis}, abstract = {

A rationalized interfacial design strategy was applied to tailor the porous transport layer (PTL)-catalyst layer (CL) contact and the PTL bulk-phase architecture. Particularly, at the PTL-CL interface, our results reveal that laser ablated sintered titanium power-based PTLs improve electrolyzer performance at both the H2NEW Consortium baseline catalyst loading of 0.4 mgIr·cm⁻² as well as at the ultra-low catalyst loading of 0.055 mgIr·cm⁻². Under ultra-low catalyst loadings, the laser ablated PTL demonstrates maximum reduction of 230 mV compared to the commercial PTL at 4 A·cm⁻², and reduces by 68 mV at 3.2 A·cm⁻² under H2NEW baseline loading. Laser ablation alters the titanium phase at the interface, so it forms more uniform structure like a microporous layer or a backing layer, leading to an increase in the surface area in contact with the catalyst layer while preventing the membrane from deforming into the PTL. Moreover, we reveal that bulk-phase architecture modification of the PTL by ablating patterned pores at the flow field-PTL interface improves mass transport without sacrificing contact at the CL-PTL interface. Overall, laser ablation of the PTL is an effective method to customize interfacial design to enhance proton exchange membrane electrolyzer performance.

}, year = {2023}, journal = {Applied Energy}, volume = {336}, pages = {120853}, month = {02/2023}, issn = {03062619}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0306261923002179}, doi = {10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120853}, language = {eng}, }