Nara Miyuki, Fujii Katsushi, Matsui Daichi, Ogura Atsushi, Murakami Takeharu, Ogawa Takayo, Ito Seigo, Cheng Chi David, Scholes Colin A, Wada Satoshi
Photonics Control Technology Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, 1-2 Hirosawa, Wako , Saitama351-0198, Japan.
School of Science and Technology, Meiji University, 1-1-1 Higashi-Mita, Tama, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 214-8571, Japan.
ACS Omega. 2025 Mar 6;10(10):10425-10431. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.4c10548. eCollection 2025 Mar 18.
Ion-exchange membranes are crucial components in water electrolysis using polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) for green hydrogen production. However, the impact of membrane properties on the device performance has not been adequately studied, and the extent to which easily implementable strategies can improve the membrane properties remains unclear. This study investigates simple yet practical strategies to change PEMWE performance by examining how the ion-exchange capacity of cation exchange membranes and the pretreatment (e.g., water and acid wash) of catalyst-coated membranes influence device-level performance, moving beyond the traditional focus on catalysts and cell assembly. Our results show that increasing the ion-exchange capacity not only decreases the series resistance but also improves the charge transfer at the electrochemical reaction interface. Enhancing the membrane properties alone can boost the current-voltage characteristics of PEMWE without altering the catalysts.
离子交换膜是使用聚合物电解质膜水电解（PEMWE）生产绿色氢气的水电解中的关键组件。然而，膜性能对装置性能的影响尚未得到充分研究，易于实施的策略能在多大程度上改善膜性能仍不明确。本研究通过研究阳离子交换膜的离子交换容量以及催化剂涂覆膜的预处理（如水洗和酸洗）如何影响装置级性能，探索改变PEMWE性能的简单而实用的策略，超越了传统上对催化剂和电池组装的关注。我们的结果表明，增加离子交换容量不仅会降低串联电阻，还会改善电化学反应界面处的电荷转移。仅增强膜性能就能提升PEMWE的电流-电压特性，而无需改变催化剂。
