Hydrogen Production by Polymer

Electrolyte Membrane (PEM)

Electrolysis using Platinum and
Iridium as Electrocatalysts
Thea Jazmine G. Dizon
STEM 12 - A

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Background
 Non-renewable fuels, like fossil fuels, are one of the reasons why climate change is happening
because of the greenhouse gases they emit that alters the Earth’s atmosphere. Adding to that,
many non-renewable fuels emit pollutants that can be very harmful to human and environmental
health. Because of this, many scientists are putting a lot of effort to find new and renewable sources
of fuels and energy.
 One of the latest renewable energy trends in the science community is Hydrogen as fuels through
the use of fuel cells. Hydrogen is an energy carrier that stores and delivers energy in a usable form.
However, Hydrogen does not naturally occur in a pure form, because of this it is produced from
compounds that contains hydrogen and one of the most abundant source on earth is water.
 Water Electrolysis is the process of splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen molecules
through the use of electricity. It is one of the efficient ways of producing hydrogen fuel as it only
needs water and electricity. For the hydrogen to be renewable however, it is needed that the
electricity used also came from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind electricity.

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Process
 Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) Electrolyzes uses an anode and cathode with
electrocatalyst on the surface, usually Platinum for the cathode and Iridium for the anode, both
possess a high catalytic performance. Oxygen is produced in the anodic side, called Oxygen
evolution reaction (OER), and Hydrogen is produced in the cathodic side, called Hydrogen evolution
reaction (HER).
 The Platinum and Iridium help to hasten the splitting of the water molecules by converting the
electrical energy into chemical energy and encourages the reaction. Platinum minimizes the
overpotential(loss) in high reaction rates. Iridium have shown high activity and stability for the OER.
 In OER (2H2O → O2 + 4H+ + 4e-), the water molecules reacts to the anode to form oxygen,
hydrogen ions. The electrons travels to the cathode through an external circuit.
 In HER (2 H+ + 2 e− → H2), the hydrogen protons passes through the membrane to the cathode
where the two ions(hydrogen protons and electrons) meet, combining to form hydrogen gas.

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Illustrated Process

Image credit: Davidlfritz, PEM Elektrolyse 5.gif, 2013

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Progress
• The catalysts used for the Electrolysis, which are Platinum and Iridium, are rare and very expensive.
This makes the production of Hydrogen gas for fuel become costly. Scientists are still searching for
other catalysts to be used that is more Earth-abundant and cheaper.
• One of the new catalyst they found is Cobalt Phosphide(CoP), a non-precious catalyst that is
cheaper than Platinum. The experiments were done in lab-scale to a commercial-scale PEM
Electrolyzer. The researchers have found that when they have switched the electrocatalyst in the
cathode side from platinum to cobalt phosphide, under the same conditions, it provided good results
that are comparable to platinum-based PEM Electrolyzer. The CoP catalyst was active and stable
for more than 1,700 hours, a good indication that it may be able to be used for commercial
applications.

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Reference List
• Hydrogen Production: Electrolysis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-
production-electrolysis
• The PEM Electrolyzer/Fuel Cell. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.horizoncurriculum.com/supportmaterial/the-
pem-electrolyzerfuel-cell/
• Electrocatalysis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://jaramillogroup.stanford.edu/catalysis.html
• Davidlfritz. (2013). PEM Elektrolyse 5.gif. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons. Retrieved from
https://wiki2.org/en/File:PEM_Elektrolyse_5.gif#/media/File:PEM_Elektrolyse_5.gif
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. (2019, Oct 19). Study shows a much cheaper catalyst can generate
hydrogen in a commercial device. Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2019-10-cheaper-catalyst-hydrogen-
commercial-device.html
• King, L. A., Hubert, M. A., Capuano, C., Manco, J., Danilovic, N., Valle, E., Hellstern, T. R., Ayers,
K., Jaramillo, T. F. (2019). A non-precious metal hydrogen catalyst in a commercial polymer electrolyte
membrane electrolyser. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31611657