Dániel Hetey

PhD Student

Electrochemical water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen is one of the promising technologies to address humanity's growing energy consumption, as well as the intermittent contribution of renewable energy sources. Improving the efficiency of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) via a suitable catalyst would allow the widespread use of the proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer technology (PEMWE) for the production of green hydrogen. Iridium oxide is the most promising catalyst for this application, but its scarcity makes it unsuitable for large-scale applications. Therefore, reducing the amount of iridium required, as well as improving the operational stability of the catalyst, are both very important goals for the future.

Therefore, the focus of my doctoral research is the investigation of iridium oxide catalyst activity and dissolution in PEMWE systems. The electrocatalytic performance of iridium oxide samples is evaluated in aqueous model systems with the use of an online scanning flow cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SFC-ICP-MS) to monitor the stability in real-time. The stability is further tested in gas diffusion electrodes to simulate the conditions of a single-cell electrolyzer.