Ionomer-free and recyclable porous-transport electrode for high-performing proton-exchange-membrane water electrolysis

Clean hydrogen production requires large-scale deployment of water-electrolysis technologies, particularly proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs). However, as iridium-based electrocatalysts remain the only practical option for PEMWEs, their low abundance will become a bottleneck for a sustainable hydrogen economy. Herein, we propose high-performing and durable ionomer-free porous transport electrodes (PTEs) with facile recycling features enabling Ir thrifting and reclamation. The ionomer-free porous transport electrodes offer a practical pathway to investigate the role of ionomer in the catalyst layer and, from microelectrode measurements, point to an ionomer poisoning effect for the oxygen evolution reaction. The ionomer-free porous transport electrodes demonstrate a voltage reduction of > 600 mV compared to conventional ionomer-coated porous transport electrodes at 1.8 A cm⁻² and <0.1 mgIr cm⁻², and a voltage degradation of 29 mV at average rate of 0.58 mV per 1000-cycles after 50k cycles of accelerated-stress tests at 4 A cm⁻². Moreover, the ionomer-free feature enables facile recycling of multiple components of PEMWEs, which is critical to a circular clean hydrogen economy.