Improving water electrolysis efficiency by coating ‘hydrating gel’, a diaper material

[월간수소경제 성재경 기자] The research team led by Professor Jeonggi Ryu of the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST announced on the 8th that they have developed a technology to improve the performance of water electrolysis by coating the electrode with hydrogel.

It is the principle that the hydrogel repels the bubbles that interfere with the hydrogen production reaction, and it has an effect comparable to that of an expensive noble metal catalyst.

Hydrogen and oxygen from the electrolysis of water stick to the electrode surface and form bubbles, but if they are not removed in time, the electrode becomes overloaded and the reaction slows down.

To solve this problem, the research team developed a technology to coat the electrode with a hydrogel. Hydrogel absorbs water well and is used as a material for diapers and soft lenses. When it is coated on an electrode, the gas is pushed out thanks to its property of liking water much more than gas.

As a result of electrolysis of water by coating the hydrogel on the porous electrode, the hydrogen production capacity increased by 150% at high voltage compared to the case where the hydrogel was not coated. This is a hydrogen production efficiency comparable to that of ruthenium, which is known to have the best performance among commercial catalysts.

The research team said, “Only by coating the hydrogel on the electrode, the decomposition reaction activation effect is similar to that of using a noble metal catalyst. It will help,” he said.

This research result, in which UNIST’s Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering Master’s Master Misol Bae participated as the first author, was selected as the cover paper of ‘Advanced Energy Materials’, a prestigious magazine in the field of electrochemistry, and published on August 5th.

@2017 Monthly Hydrogen Economy Corp. All rights reserved.

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