High-rate Decoupled Water Electrolysis System Integrated with α-MoO3 as a Redox Mediator with Fast Anhydrous Proton Kinetics

Abstract

Hydrogen is a promising alternative to fossil fuels that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Decoupled water electrolysis system using a reversible proton storage redox mediator, where the oxygen evolution reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction are separated in time and space, is an effective approach to producing hydrogen gas with high purity, high flexibility, and low cost. To realize fast hydrogen production in such a system, a redox mediator capable of releasing protons rapidly is required. Herein, α-MoO3, with an ultrafast proton transfer property that can be explained by a dense hydrogen bond network in the lattice oxygen arrays of HxMoO3, is examined as a high-rate redox mediator for fast hydrogen production in acidic electrolytes. The α-MoO3 redox mediator shows both a large capacity of 204 mAh g−1 and fast hydrogen production at a current rate of 10 A cm−2(≈153 A g−1), outperforming most of the previously reported solid-state redox mediators.