Rapid Prototyping of Lab-scale Electrolysis Cells Using Stereolithography and Electroless Plating

Abstract

Electrolysis research is typically conducted using commercially available cells with standard designs that are difficult to modify or custom-machined parts that are time-consuming to produce. Herein, we describe a method to rapidly produce lab-scale electrolysis cells that uses high-resolution, high-fidelity stereolithography 3D printing combined with electroless metal plating. Cells prepared by the printing/electroless plating method were compared to the same cells machined in Ti for CO electrolysis experiments. The printed cells showed very similar performance to the machined cells across a wide current density range (up to 250 mA cm-2) and demonstrated 24 h of stable operation in a zero-gap configuration. This work demonstrates the ability to prototype electrochemical cell designs in a fraction of the time required using conventional machining.