Abstract:
Sea-water electrolysis presents electrochemical complexities due to concurrent chlorine evolution reaction (CER) and subsequent fuel contamination, which traditionally demand segmented cell architecture with expensive membranes and dimensionally stable precious metal anodes. By inducing a unidirectional competitive redox, we demonstrate a membrane-free, scalable green hydrogen production from natural sea-water without using any precious metals. The unidirectional competitive redox stabilizes its oxidized form on a carbon electrode, which effectively counteract parasitic CER and simultaneously aid hydrogen evolution by releasing additional protons. This approach in a lab-level prototype yields an unsegmented precious metal-free natural sea-water electrolyzer that operates at a voltage as low as 1 V, producing green hydrogen for 100 hours with energy consumption nearly one-third that of conventional methods. This offers an energy-efficient pathway for centralized green hydrogen production without any fuel purifier, which is crucial for climate stabilization efforts.