2023-05-18 06:15:58
[월간수소경제 성재경 기자] The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Yoon Seok-jin) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research Center’s research team led by Dr. Park Hyeon-seo and Dr. Yoo Seong-jong have developed a new technology that drastically reduces the amount of platinum and iridium, precious metals used in the electrode protection layer of PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) water electrolysis devices. Developed parts of the structure.
Unlike previous studies that focused on reducing the amount of iridium catalyst while maintaining the structure of using a large amount of platinum and gold as the electrode protective layer, the precious metal in the electrode protective layer was replaced with cheap iron nitride and a small amount of iridium catalyst was uniformly applied on top of it. Coating greatly improved the economic feasibility of water electrolysis devices.
A typical water electrolysis device has two electrodes to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In the case of an oxygen generating electrode operating in a highly corrosive environment, 1 mg/cm of gold or platinum is deposited on the electrode surface to increase durability and production efficiency.2It is used as a protective layer by coating about 1~2mg/cm on top of it.2coated with an iridium catalyst.
As such, precious metals used in water electrolysis devices are very expensive due to very small reserves and production.
In order to increase the economic feasibility of the water electrolysis device, the research team used rare metals such as gold and platinum, which were used as oxygen electrode protective layers, to produce cheap iron nitride (Fe).2replaced by N).
To this end, they first uniformly coated iron oxide, which has low electrical conductivity, on the electrode, and then developed a complex process to increase conductivity by converting the iron oxide into iron nitride. In addition, by developing a process for uniformly coating an iridium catalyst with a thickness of about 25 nanometers (nm) on the iron nitride protective layer, the amount of iridium catalyst used can be reduced to 0.1 mg/cm.2 reduced to below
The developed electrode maintained similar performance to existing commercial water electrolysis devices, and its initial stability was also verified by operating for more than 100 hours.
Dr. Hyeon-Seo Park of KIST said, “Reducing the amount of iridium catalyst used to 10% and developing a substitute for the platinum protective layer are essential research to expand the economic feasibility and spread of PEM water electrolysis, and using cheap iron nitride instead of platinum is of great significance. He said, “After additionally observing the performance and durability of the electrode, we will apply it to a commercial device as soon as possible.”
The results of this study were published online in the latest issue of ‘Applied Catalysis B: Environmental’, an international scientific journal.
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#Development #platinum #replacement #technology #PEM #water #electrolysis