Polymer Electrolyte Membranes for Water Photo-Electrolysis

Aricò, A.S.; Girolamo, M.; Siracusano, Salvatore; Sebastián, David; Baglio, V.; Schuster, Michael

doi:10.3390/membranes7020025

Cited by 18 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…evolution reaction under alkaline conditions. The performance of the aforementioned co-catalysts was studied in a complete PEC cell in the presence of an ionomer dispersion and an anionic membrane [46,47] to evaluate their effect under practical conditions.…”

Section: Physicochemical Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its properties were compared to IrRuOx [43,44] and La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Fe 0.8 Co 0.2 (LSFCO) [45] as benchmark catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction under alkaline conditions. The performance of the aforementioned co-catalysts was studied in a complete PEC cell in the presence of an ionomer dispersion and an anionic membrane [46,47] to evaluate their effect under practical conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting at Hematite Photoanodes by Effect of a NiFe-Oxide co-Catalyst

et al. 2020

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Tandem photoelectrochemical cells (PECs), made up of a solid electrolyte membrane between two low-cost photoelectrodes, were investigated to produce “green” hydrogen by exploiting renewable solar energy. The assembly of the PEC consisted of an anionic solid polymer electrolyte membrane (gas separator) clamped between an n-type Fe2O3 photoanode and a p-type CuO photocathode. The semiconductors were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) transparent substrates and the cell was investigated with the hematite surface directly exposed to a solar simulator. Ionomer dispersions obtained from the dissolution of commercial polymers in the appropriate solvents were employed as an ionic interface with the photoelectrodes. Thus, the overall photoelectrochemical water splitting occurred in two membrane-separated compartments, i.e., the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the cathode. A cost-effective NiFeOx co-catalyst was deposited on the hematite photoanode surface and investigated as a surface catalytic enhancer in order to improve the OER kinetics, this reaction being the rate-determining step of the entire process. The co-catalyst was compared with other well-known OER electrocatalysts such as La0.6Sr0.4Fe0.8CoO3 (LSFCO) perovskite and IrRuOx. The Ni-Fe oxide was the most promising co-catalyst for the oxygen evolution in the anionic environment in terms of an enhanced PEC photocurrent and efficiency. The materials were physico-chemically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

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Section: Physicochemical Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting at Hematite Photoanodes by Effect of a NiFe-Oxide co-Catalyst

et al. 2020

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“…Efficiency and durability to produce pure H 2 by photo-electrolysis may be improved by employing a solid polymer-electrolyte between the electrodes as a gas separator. This separation for polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and their subcategories [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ] has been known for many years whereas the employment of a solid-membrane electrolyte has been less studied for PEC applications [ 23 , 24 ]. Its implementation in a cost-effective tandem PEC architecture, able to capture a significant portion of the solar irradiation, is structured as photoanode/membrane/photocathode and the working mechanism has been discussed in detail in some recent work [ 25 , 26 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High water permeation to allow for proper water management between cathode and anode according to the main conduction mechanism. Pros and cons of using protonic or anionic membranes for separating the electrodes, as well as the issues related to their transparency to use them in a tandem photo-electrolysis cell, have been evaluated [24]. A significant increase either in photocurrent or spontaneous cell photovoltage for the anionic-membrane-based cell was observed and correlated with better reaction kinetics.…”

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confidence: 99%

Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application

et al. 2020

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Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H2 evolved at the photocathode from O2 at the photoanode, was investigated in terms of ionic conductivity, corrosion mitigation, and light transmission for a tandem photo-electro-chemical configuration. The designed anionic membranes, based on polysulfone polymer, contained positive fixed functionalities on the side chains of the polymeric network, particularly quaternary ammonium species counterbalanced by hydroxide anions. The membrane was first investigated in alkaline solution, KOH or NaOH at different concentrations, to optimize the ion-exchange process. Exchange in 1M KOH solution provided high conversion of the groups, a high ion-exchange capacity (IEC) value of 1.59 meq/g and a hydroxide conductivity of 25 mS/cm at 60 °C for anionic membrane. Another important characteristic, verified for hydroxide membrane, was its transparency above 600 nm, thus making it a good candidate for tandem cell applications in which the illuminated photoanode absorbs the highest-energy photons (< 600 nm), and photocathode absorbs the lowest-energy photons. Furthermore, hydrogen crossover tests showed a permeation of H2 through the membrane of less than 0.1%. Finally, low-cost tandem photo-electro-chemical cells, formed by titanium-doped hematite and ionomer at the photoanode and cupric oxide and ionomer at the photocathode, separated by a solid membrane in OH form, were assembled to optimize the influence of ionomer-loading dispersion. Maximum enthalpy (1.7%), throughput (2.9%), and Gibbs energy efficiencies (1.3%) were reached by using n-propanol/ethanol (1:1 wt.) as solvent for ionomer dispersion and with a 25 µL cm−2 ionomer loading for both the photoanode and the photocathode.

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“…(i) The membrane-electrode assemblies were completed by using two different types of polymeric membranes, with either protonic or hydroxide ion conductivity. In a recent publication, Arico et al [31]used model TiO2-based photoanodes supported on a coated glass and exposed them to deaerated water. They showed that the electrolyte environment can strongly influence the surface of photoanodes during water splitting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Porous titania photoelectrodes built on a Ti-web of microfibers for polymeric electrolyte membrane photoelectrochemical (PEM-PEC) cell applications

Zafeiropoulos

Stoll

Doğan

et al. 2018

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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Conventional photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells are based on planar photoelectrodes supported on glass substrates and liquid electrolytes. Only few recent studies have examined an alternative PEC design which is robust and scalable, where the key elements are polymeric electrolyte membranes and porous photoelectrodes. This work aims to give further insights on the operation of such cells utilizing titania photoelectrodes and proton and hydroxide ion conducting membranes. Two families of photoelectrodes were developed on Ti porous substrate; TiO2 nanotubes grown by anodization and subsequent oxygen annealing, and TiO2 layers developed under oxygen annealing. Initial screening of the photoanodes for water splitting and (poly)alcohol photo-oxidation took place in conventional PEC cells. We found that the annealing temperature affects the performance of the photoanodes, evidenced by a monotonic increase in the activity for water photo-oxidation with increasing annealing temperature. Moreover it was demonstrated that anatase phase is predominantly active for the (poly)alcohol electro-oxidation, while there is a synergy between rutile and anatase which is beneficial for water splitting. In addition, the most promising photoanodes for water splitting were evaluated in our polymeric electrolyte membrane photoelectrochemical (PEM-PEC) cell during gas phase operation. It was found that PEM-PEC operation is more efficient when OHconducting membranes are used, while the nature of the carrier gas does not significantly influence the activity. Overall, PEM-PEC operation is more promising than conventional PEC in both acidic and alkaline media, since comparable (or even at some cases higher) photocurrents were obtained while liquid pumping systems are not required for PEM-PEC devices.

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Polymer Electrolyte Membranes for Water Photo-Electrolysis

Cited by 18 publications

References 27 publications

Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting at Hematite Photoanodes by Effect of a NiFe-Oxide co-Catalyst

Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting at Hematite Photoanodes by Effect of a NiFe-Oxide co-Catalyst

Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application

Porous titania photoelectrodes built on a Ti-web of microfibers for polymeric electrolyte membrane photoelectrochemical (PEM-PEC) cell applications

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