Hydrogen is regarded as the next-generation energy carriers for the future hydrogen economy.¹ Among the hydrogen production technologies, proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers is considered the favored approach for the implementation of the global hydrogen energy transformation due to its several benefits including high power density operation, low ohmic losses and differential pressure operation. However, (i) high cost mainly from the high platinum group metals (PGM) loading in the catalysts layers; (ii) low durability due to instability of the catalysts layers and membrane; and (iii) poor safety because of hydrogen crossover of PEM water electrolyzers have jeopardized their widespread commercialization. Currently, a new Department of Energy Consortium (H2NEW) has targeted hydrogen production from electrolysis, especially PEM water electrolysis, for use as a clean, sustainable fuel, which can achieve $2/kg hydrogen production cost by 2025.² This requires a balance between the performance, durability and scale-up cost of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for PEM water electrolyzers.

In this work, we demonstrate the capability to fabricate large scale MEAs by the unique Reactive Spray Deposition Technology (RSDT), that have one order of magnitude lower PGM loadings in the catalyst layer than the state-of-the-art (SOA) designs, and activity and durability performance comparable to the SOA commercial MEAs. RSDT is a flame-based method that combines the catalysts synthesis and electrodes deposition processes into one step and thus substantially reduces the time and cost for their fabrication.^3–5 The RSDT fabricated MEA with 680 cm² geometric area electrodes, and loadings of 0.2 mg_Pt/cm² in the cathode and 0.3 mg_Ir/cm² in the anode has been tested at current density of 1.8 A cm^-2, 50 ^oC, and 400 psi differential hydrogen pressure. The initial steady-state test for over 250 hours, clearly shows excellent activity and stability. In addition, the RSDT fabricated MEA has integrated dual recombination layers that effectively reduce the hydrogen crossover to below 10 %LFL at all current densities from 0.58 to 1.8 A/cm².

Reference
1. M. Carmo, D. L. Fritz, J. Mergel, and D. Stolten, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 38, 4901–4934 (2013).
2. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2021-09/h2-shot-summit-panel1-lte-status.pdf
3. H. Yu et al., Appl. Catal. B Environ., 239, 133–146 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2018.07.064.
4. H. Yu et al., Electrochim. Acta, 247, 1155–1168 (2017) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2017.07.093.
5. G. Mirshekari et al., Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 46, 1526–1539 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.10.112.