(406a) Insights into Material Dynamics from Operando Studies of Industrially Relevant Zero-Gap Water Electrolyzers

Low-temperature zero-gap water electrolyzers are a promising technology to reduce carbon emissions in industrial H₂ production. At the core of these devices lies the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), a structure with a complex series of interfaces designed to catalyze water splitting and support mass transport of gases, liquids, and ions. These interfaces are highly dynamic, evolving during device operation in ways that are difficult to fully quantify with typical post-mortem characterization.

In this talk, I will discuss a range of operando techniques we have developed to track MEA dynamics in zero-gap water electrolyzers under industrially relevant conditions (e.g., high current density, elevated temperature, pure-water feed, intermittent load, etc.). These include high energy resolution fluorescence detection X-ray absorption near edge structure (HERFD-XANES) for tracking oxidation state dynamics, X-ray radiography for visualizing bubble transport, and on-line inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for quantifying dissolution. Our initial studies focus on common electrolyzer architectures such as proton and anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers with typical anode catalysts (e.g., Ir and Co), and we expect that these techniques will be widely applicable to other materials and electrolyzer architectures.