Innovative design and manufacturing of a reaction-enhanced liquid/Gas diffusion layer with boosted catalyst utilization for green hydrogen production

Improving the catalyst utilization and cell performance is a long-standing challenge for efficient hydrogen production in the proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs). Herein, a novel and thin reaction enhanced liquid/gas diffusion layer (RELGDL) is developed, which can effectively improve the catalyst utilization compared with the commercial sintered Ti powders and thin/tunable liquid/gas diffusion layers (TTLGDLs). By increasing the interfacial contact area between the porous transport layer (PTL) and the catalyst layer (CL), more electron transport pathways are provided for catalysts, resulting in the effective activation of underutilized catalysts. At the voltage of 1.8 V, the mass-specific current can be increased by 25.6% with the same CL compared with commercial sintered Ti powders. At the current density of 6 A/cm2, the RELGDL decreases the cell voltages by 70 mV and 290 mV compared to sintered Ti powders and TTLGDLs, respectively. Overall, maximizing the contact area between the PTL and CL is significant for enhanced catalyst utilization for PEMECs, and will inspire more advanced PTL and interface designs in the future.