Enhancing Mass Transfer in Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis by Overlaid Nickel Mesh Substrate

Abstract

Nickel foam substrate poses significant challenges in anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEM-WE) for green hydrogen production due to its susceptibility to membrane puncture and hindered mass transfer. To address these challenges, this work introduced a one-step overlaying strategy, creating a double-layered nickel mesh substrate for enhancing the performance of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in AEM-WE. The overlaid nickel mesh substrate (e.g., SC₃₀₀₊₆₀ with sieve counts of 300 and 60) provided a smooth surface to protect the membrane from being punctured and facilitated faster bubble detachment during electrocatalysis in a three-electrode system. In the AEM-WE system, the SC₃₀₀₊₆₀ substrate demonstrated high current densities of 1.55 A cm^–2 (without catalyst) and 5.01 A cm^–2 (with NiFe-LDH based catalyst) at 2.0 V and 80 °C, surpassing most reported AME-WE literature data. Overall, this work highlighted the potential of the overlaying strategy for enhancing AEM-WE performance in substrate engineering.