Cr‐Leaching Induced Vacancy Engineering for High‐Performance Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis
Abstract
ABSTRACT Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) offers a compelling route to large‐scale green hydrogen production. However, developing catalysts that simultaneously combine high activity, long‐term durability, and stack‐level scalability remains a major challenge. Here, we report a magnetron‐sputtered NiFeCr 2 thin‐film catalyst that delivers 3 A cm − 2 at 1.77 V and 8.54 A cm − 2 at 2.10 V in an AEMWE membrane electrode assembly at 60°C, while maintaining stable operation at 2 A cm − 2 for 1798 h. Notably, the thin‐film catalyst was further assembled into a 15 × 100 cm 2 electrolyzer stack, delivering a peak power of 12.87 kW and validating its practical scalability. In situ spectroscopic characterization and electrochemical mechanistic studies reveal that electrochemical reconstruction induces partial Cr dissolution and the concomitant formation of active Ni/FeOOH phases, while confirming that NiFeCr 2 operates via a lattice‐oxygen‐mediated mechanism. Density functional theory calculations indicate Cr vacancies increase metal–oxygen covalency, strengthen adsorption of oxygenated intermediates, and lower free energy barriers for oxygen evolution reaction.
Article Details
Authors (10)
Ziqi Liao
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy Beijing Laboratory of New Energy Storage Technology iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials) Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences Dalian China
Wei Wang
Tianfu Liu
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials) Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Xinhui Guo
Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China
Yanpeng Song
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Zichao Wu
Xiaomin Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials)
Dunfeng Gao
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Pengfei Wei
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Guoxiong Wang
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials) Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics