Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs) offer a promising technique for storing intermittent and sustainable energies (solar, wind, hydropower, etc.) into hydrogen with high purity, compact systems and high efficiency under high current density. Nevertheless, additional overpotentials, associated with the resistances of components and their interfacial contacts, result in the insufficient efficiency of PEMECs. Moreover, their high material and manufacturing costs hamper the widespread industrialization. Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technologies have attracted growing attentions due to their advantages of providing complex 3D inner structure, zero material waste, and rapid prototyping, which could help to overcome the challenges of application of PEMECs.  This research will present the fabrication and integration of PEMECs with AM technologies. The integrated cell plates, which are designed to simultaneously serve as bipolar plates, liquid/gas diffusion layers, gaskets, and current distributors, are manufactured with selective laser melting from stainless steel powder. The <i>in situ</i> and <i>ex situ</i> characterization results show the AM integrated plates improve the PEMEC performance, but also reduce the volume/weight with simplified configuration. Furthermore, protective coating of thin film gold enables the application of stainless steel AM components in the corrosive anode environment with low interfacial resistances and remarkable stability. Those novel AM PEMECs provide a possibility of economical and rapid development of energy conversion and storage devices.

Exploring 3D-printed water electrolyzers for economic and high-efficiency energy storage

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.