To Carbon or Not to Carbon: Rethinking Electrode Design in Unitized Reversible Fuel Cells
The development of efficient and scalable energy storage systems remains a major challenge in the transition to renewable energy. Unitized reversible fuel cells (URFCs), capable of operating in both electrolysis and fuel cell modes, offer a promising solution. In this context, integrating the chlor-...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/47881 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c15144 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.5c15144 https://hdl.handle.net/10578/47881 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | carbon-based electrodes chlor-alkali electrolysis energy storage microporous layer system efficiency unitized reversible fuel cell |
| Sumario: | The development of efficient and scalable energy storage systems remains a major challenge in the transition to renewable energy. Unitized reversible fuel cells (URFCs), capable of operating in both electrolysis and fuel cell modes, offer a promising solution. In this context, integrating the chlor-alkali process into URFCs enables not only cost-effective energy storage but also environmental benefits such as CO2 capture via alkaline absorption. While chlor-alkali electrolysis is well established, the reversible operation is not well known. This study addresses a key design question: the role of carbon-based materials in electrode architecture, specifically in the use of a carbon-based microporous layer. Titanium felt electrodes were modified with microporous layers (MPLs) containing 1, 2, and 3 mgC/cm2 and coated with a RuO2–Pt catalyst using a Pechini-type polymeric precursor method. The results showed that increasing the carbon content, the electrode resistance was reduced and surface hydrophobicity was enhanced, achieving the best results with 2 mgC/cm2 in the MPL. Moreover, in electrolysis mode, the hydrogen production efficiency improved with temperature, reaching 15 mgH2/Wh at 60 °C (surpassing industrial benchmarks). The system also achieved high Faradaic efficiency for hydrogen production (>98%) and enabled simultaneous CO2 capture via cathodic alkaline absorption. In fuel cell mode, the optimized electrode reached a peak power density of ~30 mW/cm2 at 60 °C, an order of magnitude higher than previously reported in the literature for similar systems. The results are very promising and position chlor-alkali-based reversible electrochemical cells as a promising platform for efficient, scalable, and multifunctional energy storage and conversion technologies. |
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