Overall water splitting (OWS) system to produce H2 fuel is hindered by the high thermodynamic potential (1.23 V) and unfavorable kinetics of the anodic reaction, oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which contributes to nearly 90% electricity consumption in OWS. The replacement of OER with thermodynamically more favorable organic oxidation reactions and coupled with hydrogen evolution reaction to construct hybrid water electrolysis system could realize low-energy-consumption H2 production and obtain value-added chemicals or achieve green degradation of pollutants simultaneously from electro-catalytic integrating. In addition, the design of advanced electrocatalysts is aimed at improving the energy conversion efficiency of the OWS as well as the selectivity, faradic efficiency, etc. of the anodic reactions.
The traditional OWS is seriously hampered by 4e-/H+ sluggish OER kinetics, leading to a high cell voltage and energy consumption of hydrogen production. Beyond that, the high-risk of the explosive H2/O2 gas mixtures is also a serious problem. The ions exchange membranes are appropriately used to evade the gas crossover, but the reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by anode would degrade the membranes to reduce their service life. Furthermore, the anodic products oxygen gas is less valuable because it can be easily captured from air. Therefore, the OER could lower the energy conversion efficiency of OWS.
To address these issues brought by OER, in addition to advanced OER electrocatalysts design, the replacement of OER by thermodynamically more favorable and value-added small molecules such as alcohol, aldehydes, urea, hydrazine etc. have been better alternatives to OER in the hybrid water electrolysis systems. Together with advanced electrocatalysts design, this pioneer strategy could well evade the drawbacks from OER and achieve low-energy-consumption hydrogen production.
Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
1. Saingle-atoms catalysts for hybrid water electrolysis system;
2. Morphological and structural regulation of nanomaterials for cathodic hydrogen production in hybrid water electrolysis system;
3. Anodic electrocatalysts design;
4. Mechanism exploration by using operando characterization techniques;
5. Hybrid water electrolysis systems from toward practical applications (eg. flow cells, asymmetric electrolyte hybrid electrolyzers etc.)
6. Explore more alternative oxidation reactions to replace OER to couple with HER for constructing new hybrid water electrolysis system;
7. Other hybrid water electrolysis system related fields.
Keywords:
Nanomaterials, small molecules oxidation, hybrid water electrolysislow-energy-consumption hydrogen production, green electrosynthesis of chemicals, green electrodegradation of pollutants
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
Overall water splitting (OWS) system to produce H2 fuel is hindered by the high thermodynamic potential (1.23 V) and unfavorable kinetics of the anodic reaction, oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which contributes to nearly 90% electricity consumption in OWS. The replacement of OER with thermodynamically more favorable organic oxidation reactions and coupled with hydrogen evolution reaction to construct hybrid water electrolysis system could realize low-energy-consumption H2 production and obtain value-added chemicals or achieve green degradation of pollutants simultaneously from electro-catalytic integrating. In addition, the design of advanced electrocatalysts is aimed at improving the energy conversion efficiency of the OWS as well as the selectivity, faradic efficiency, etc. of the anodic reactions.
The traditional OWS is seriously hampered by 4e-/H+ sluggish OER kinetics, leading to a high cell voltage and energy consumption of hydrogen production. Beyond that, the high-risk of the explosive H2/O2 gas mixtures is also a serious problem. The ions exchange membranes are appropriately used to evade the gas crossover, but the reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by anode would degrade the membranes to reduce their service life. Furthermore, the anodic products oxygen gas is less valuable because it can be easily captured from air. Therefore, the OER could lower the energy conversion efficiency of OWS.
To address these issues brought by OER, in addition to advanced OER electrocatalysts design, the replacement of OER by thermodynamically more favorable and value-added small molecules such as alcohol, aldehydes, urea, hydrazine etc. have been better alternatives to OER in the hybrid water electrolysis systems. Together with advanced electrocatalysts design, this pioneer strategy could well evade the drawbacks from OER and achieve low-energy-consumption hydrogen production.
Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
1. Saingle-atoms catalysts for hybrid water electrolysis system;
2. Morphological and structural regulation of nanomaterials for cathodic hydrogen production in hybrid water electrolysis system;
3. Anodic electrocatalysts design;
4. Mechanism exploration by using operando characterization techniques;
5. Hybrid water electrolysis systems from toward practical applications (eg. flow cells, asymmetric electrolyte hybrid electrolyzers etc.)
6. Explore more alternative oxidation reactions to replace OER to couple with HER for constructing new hybrid water electrolysis system;
7. Other hybrid water electrolysis system related fields.
Keywords:
Nanomaterials, small molecules oxidation, hybrid water electrolysislow-energy-consumption hydrogen production, green electrosynthesis of chemicals, green electrodegradation of pollutants
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.