Study of catalyst sprayed membrane under irradiation method to prepare high performance membrane electrode assemblies for solid polymer electrolyte water electrolysis

In this work, a catalyst sprayed membrane under irradiation (CSMUI) method was investigated to develop high performance membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) water electrolysis. The water electrolysis performance and properties of the prepared MEA were evaluated and analyzed by polarization curves, electrochemistry impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The characterizations revealed that the CSMUI method is very effective for preparing high performance MEA for SPE water electrolysis: the cell voltage can be as low as 1.564 V at 1 A cm−2 and the terminal voltage is only 1.669 V at 2 A cm−2, which are among the best results yet reported for SPE water electrolysis with IrO2 catalyst. Also, it is found that the noble metal catalysts loadings of the MEA prepared by this method can be greatly decreased without significant performance degradation. At a current density of 1 A cm−2, the MEA showed good stability for water electrolysis operating: the cell voltage remained at 1.60 V without obvious deterioration after 105 h operation under atmosphere pressure and 80 °C.

► The CSMUI MEA has uniformly porous CL structure and good interfacial contact. ► The terminal voltage of the CSMUI MEA is only 1.669 V at 2 A cm−2. ► The high performance can be obtained with lower noble metal loading. ► The MEA showed good stability for SPE water electrolysis at 1 A cm−2 and 80 °C.