% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.
@PHDTHESIS{Liu:905047,
author = {Liu, Chang},
title = {{N}oble {M}etal {C}oated {P}orous {T}ransport {L}ayers for
{P}olymer {E}lectrolyte {M}embrane {W}ater {E}lectrolysis},
volume = {562},
school = {RWTH Aachen University},
type = {Dissertation},
address = {Jülich},
publisher = {Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag},
reportid = {FZJ-2022-00346},
isbn = {978-3-95806-603-8},
series = {Schriften des Forschungszentrums Jülich Reihe Energie $\&$
Umwelt / Energy $\&$ Environment},
pages = {139},
year = {2021},
note = {Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2021},
abstract = {Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers are
electrochemical energyconversion devices that split water
into its constituent elements of hydrogen and oxygen.
Titaniumbasedporous transport layers (PTL) are widely used
due to their good bulk conductivity, highcorrosion
resistivity, and excellent mechanical strength. However,
titanium-based PTLs situatedat the anode side of PEM
electrolyzers are subjected to harsh oxidizing conditions
such as highanode overpotential, low pH and oxygen
evolution. Under these conditions, titanium (Ti0) changesits
oxidation state over time, which induces the formation of a
thin but continuously growing layerof passivated titanium
(TiOx). Consequently, the contact resistance of titanium
PTLs is adverselyaffected, critically decreasing cell
performance and durability.In this thesis, a very simple and
scalable method is used to protect the titanium-based PTL
frompassivation by sputtering very thin layers of noble
metal coatings such as Ir, Pt, or Au onto thePTLs. The 20 to
50 nm thick noble metal coatings on the titanium fibers
significantly decreasedinterfacial contact resistance
between the PTL and catalyst layer, and improved cell
performance.The single cells assembled with Ir- or Pt-coated
PTLs delivered higher cell performance than cellswith
Au-coated PTLs, and nearly identical cell performance as
carbon paper, which is prone tocarbon corrosion under these
operating conditions.The high cost of using noble metal
coatings can be decreased by reducing the loading of
thenoble metals. The loading of Ir as a protective layer on
the PTL has an impact on the cellperformance. The amount of
iridium on one side of the PTL was reduced to 0.025
mgIr∙cm-2 andshowed identical cell performance as
Ir-coated PTLs with higher iridium loading, whicheffectively
reduced the cost of the Ir. The total amount of iridium is
40 times less compared towhat is usually used in an anode
catalyst layer, and 20 times less than Au or Pt typically
used asprotective layers in contemporary and commercial
electrolyzers.The critical passivation of the bare
titanium-based PTL is also one significant factor
thatrestricts the durability of a PEM water electrolyzer. In
order to investigate the durability of noblemetal coatings
(Ir, Pt, Au) on the PTLs, a series of long-term measurements
were performed under2 V and 80 °C on the single cells
assembled with Ir-coated, Pt-coated and Au-coated
PTLs,respectively. Compared to the cell without the
coatings, the cell assembled with iridium andplatinum
coatings showed degradation rates close to zero, while the
identical cell performance wasobserved after 4000 hours with
a cell voltage of 2 V. These results demonstrate that
iridium andplatinum coatings on titanium-based PTLs are
highly effective at protecting the PTL againstpassivation,
ultimately improving cell performance and durability.},
cin = {IEK-14},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IEK-14-20191129},
pnm = {1231 - Electrochemistry for Hydrogen (POF4-123)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-1231},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)3 / PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
urn = {urn:nbn:de:0001-2022020848},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/905047},
}