Tracking Compression Changes in an Aqueous Electrolyte for Real-Time H2 and O2 Gas Evolution Quantification during Total Water Splitting Using BARDS

Abstract

Hydrogen fuel cell technology has the potential for integration with renewable energy sources to produce electricity without the need for fossil fuels. Efforts are being made in producing cheap and effective electrodes from new materials to make hydrogen production more efficient. Gas evolution, in all cases, requires an accurate analysis of electrochemical behavior of electrodes to quantify efficiency, improvement, or stability. Knowing the exact gas volume by any method in real time during electrochemical water splitting is urgently needed. Taking inspiration from the existing technique broadband acoustic resonance dissolution spectroscopy (BARDS), we demonstrate an original approach to continuously track the electrochemical water splitting via the gas volume evolution from hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER) processes. The technique may be used to unravel the true features of new electrode materials that evolve hydrogen and correlate material electrochemistry to the true gas volume evolved in real time.