Muhyuddin Mohsin, Santoro Carlo, Osmieri Luigi, Ficca Valerio C A, Friedman Ariel, Yassin Karam, Pagot Gioele, Negro Enrico, Konovalova Anastasiia, Lindquist Grace, Twight Liam, Kwak Minkyoung, Berretti Enrico, Noto Vito Di, Jaouen Frédéric, Elbaz Lior, Dekel Dario R, Mustarelli Piercarlo, Boettcher Shannon W, Lavacchi Alessandro, Atanassov Plamen
Electrocatalysis and Bioelectrocatalysis Laboratory (EBLab), Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, U5, Via Roberto Cozzi 55, 20125 Milan (MI), Italy.
Materials Physics and Applications Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, United States.
Chem Rev. 2025 Aug 13;125(15):6906-6976. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.4c00466. Epub 2025 Aug 1.
Hydrogen is a green and sustainable energy vector that can facilitate the large-scale integration of intermittent renewable energy, renewable fuels for heavy transport, and deep decarbonization of hard-to-abate industries. Anion-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers (AEM-WEs) have several achieved or expected competitive advantages over other electrolysis technologies, including the use of precious metal-free electrocatalysts at both electrodes, fluorine-free hydrocarbon-based ionomeric membranes and bipolar plates based on inexpensive materials. Contrasting the analogous proton-exchange-membrane system (PEM-WE), where pure water is circulated (no support electrolyte), the current generation of AEM-WEs necessitates the circulation of a dilute aqueous alkaline electrolyte for reaching high energy efficiency and durability. For several reasons, including but not limited to lower cost of balance-of-plant, lower operating cost and improved device's lifetime, achieving high cell efficiency and performance using an alkali-free water feed is highly desirable. In this review, we develop and build a foundational understanding of AEM-WEs operating with pure water, as well as discuss the effects of operating with natural water feeds like seawater. After a discussion of the possible advantages of pure-water-fed AEM-WEs, we cover the thermodynamic and kinetic processes involved in AEM-WE, followed by a detailed review of materials and components and their integration in the device. We highlight the influence of electrolyte composition and alkali/electrolyte-free feed on the membrane-electrode assembly, ionomers, electrocatalysts, porous transport layer, bipolar plates and operating configuration. We provide evidence for how the pure water feed engenders several issues related to the degradation of device components and propose mitigation strategies.
氢是一种绿色且可持续的能量载体，它有助于间歇性可再生能源的大规模整合、重型运输的可再生燃料以及难以减排行业的深度脱碳。与其他电解技术相比，阴离子交换膜水电解槽（AEM-WEs）已具备或有望具备多项竞争优势，包括在两个电极上都使用无贵金属的电催化剂、基于廉价材料的无氟烃基离聚体膜以及双极板。与类似的质子交换膜系统（PEM-WE）不同，在PEM-WE中循环的是纯水（无支持电解质），而当前一代的AEM-WEs需要循环稀碱性水溶液电解质以实现高能量效率和耐久性。出于多种原因，包括但不限于降低设备成本、降低运营成本以及提高设备寿命，使用无碱进水实现高电池效率和性能是非常可取的。在这篇综述中，我们对使用纯水运行的AEM-WEs进行了深入研究并建立了基本认识，同时讨论了使用海水等天然进水运行的影响。在讨论了纯水进料AEM-WEs的可能优势之后，我们介绍了AEM-WE中涉及的热力学和动力学过程，随后详细回顾了材料和组件及其在设备中的集成。我们强调了电解质组成和无碱/无电解质进料对膜电极组件、离聚体材料、电催化剂、多孔传输层、双极板和运行配置的影响。我们提供了证据，证明纯水进料会引发与设备组件降解相关的若干问题，并提出了缓解策略。
