Common-Ion Effect Triggered Highly Sustained Seawater Electrolysis with Additional NaCl Production

Overview

Journal Research (Wash D C)

Specialty Biology

Date 2020 Oct 12

PMID 33043295

Citations 9

Authors

Pengsong Li

Shiyuan Wang

Imran Ahmed Samo

Xingheng Zhang

Zhaolei Wang

Cheng Wang

Yang Li

Yiyun Du

Yang Zhong

Congtian Cheng

Wenwen Xu

Xijun Liu

Yun Kuang

Zhiyi Lu

Xiaoming Sun

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Developing efficient seawater-electrolysis system for mass production of hydrogen is highly desirable due to the abundance of seawater. However, continuous electrolysis with seawater feeding boosts the concentration of sodium chloride in the electrolyzer, leading to severe electrode corrosion and chlorine evolution. Herein, the common-ion effect was utilized into the electrolyzer to depress the solubility of NaCl. Specifically, utilization of 6 M NaOH halved the solubility of NaCl in the electrolyte, affording efficient, durable, and sustained seawater electrolysis in NaCl-saturated electrolytes with triple production of H, O, and crystalline NaCl. Ternary NiCoFe phosphide was employed as a bifunctional anode and cathode in simulative and Ca/Mg-free seawater-electrolysis systems, which could stably work under 500 mA/cm for over 100 h. We attribute the high stability to the increased Na concentration, which reduces the concentration of dissolved Cl in the electrolyte according to the common-ion effect, resulting in crystallization of NaCl, eliminated anode corrosion, and chlorine oxidation during continuous supplementation of Ca/Mg-free seawater to the electrolysis system.

Citing Articles

10,000-h-stable intermittent alkaline seawater electrolysis.

Sha Q, Wang S, Yan L, Feng Y, Zhang Z, Li S Nature. 2025; 639(8054):360-367.

PMID: 40044863 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08610-1.

Achieving 3-D Structural Uniformity in Cellulose Gel Beads via Salt Screening.

Garnett M, Seyed Esfahani S, Yingst A, May L, Alexander S Polymers (Basel). 2025; 16(24.

PMID: 39771370 PMC: 11677921. DOI: 10.3390/polym16243519.

In situ ammonium formation mediates efficient hydrogen production from natural seawater splitting.

Zhang X, Yu P, Sun S, Shi L, Yang P, Wu Z Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):9462.

PMID: 39487190 PMC: 11530463. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53724-1.

Self-protecting CoFeAl-layered double hydroxides enable stable and efficient brine oxidation at 2 A cm.

Liu W, Yu J, Li T, Li S, Ding B, Guo X Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):4712.

PMID: 38830888 PMC: 11148009. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49195-z.

Dynamic chloride ion adsorption on single iridium atom boosts seawater oxidation catalysis.

Duan X, Sha Q, Li P, Li T, Yang G, Liu W Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):1973.

PMID: 38438342 PMC: 10912682. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46140-y.

References

Morales-Guio C, Stern L, Hu X . Nanostructured hydrotreating catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen evolution. Chem Soc Rev. 2014; 43(18):6555-69. DOI: 10.1039/c3cs60468c. View

Xu W, Lu Z, Sun X, Jiang L, Duan X . Superwetting Electrodes for Gas-Involving Electrocatalysis. Acc Chem Res. 2018; 51(7):1590-1598. DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.8b00070. View

Rausch B, Symes M, Chisholm G, Cronin L . Decoupled catalytic hydrogen evolution from a molecular metal oxide redox mediator in water splitting. Science. 2014; 345(6202):1326-30. DOI: 10.1126/science.1257443. View

Wang H, Dai H . Strongly coupled inorganic-nano-carbon hybrid materials for energy storage. Chem Soc Rev. 2013; 42(7):3088-113. DOI: 10.1039/c2cs35307e. View

Liu Z, Tan H, Xin J, Duan J, Su X, Hao P . Metallic Intermediate Phase Inducing Morphological Transformation in Thermal Nitridation: NiFeN-Based Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Electrocatalyst for Water Splitting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018; 10(4):3699-3706. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b18671. View

Yu L, Zhu Q, Song S, McElhenny B, Wang D, Wu C . Non-noble metal-nitride based electrocatalysts for high-performance alkaline seawater electrolysis. Nat Commun. 2019; 10(1):5106. PMC: 6841982. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13092-7. View

Gao S, Li G, Liu Y, Chen H, Feng L, Wang Y . Electrocatalytic H2 production from seawater over Co, N-codoped nanocarbons. Nanoscale. 2014; 7(6):2306-16. DOI: 10.1039/c4nr04924a. View

Hsu S, Miao J, Zhang L, Gao J, Wang H, Tao H . An Earth-Abundant Catalyst-Based Seawater Photoelectrolysis System with 17.9% Solar-to-Hydrogen Efficiency. Adv Mater. 2018; 30(18):e1707261. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201707261. View

Auinger M, Katsounaros I, Meier J, Klemm S, Biedermann P, Topalov A . Near-surface ion distribution and buffer effects during electrochemical reactions. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2011; 13(36):16384-94. DOI: 10.1039/c1cp21717h. View

10.

Turner J . Sustainable hydrogen production. Science. 2004; 305(5686):972-4. DOI: 10.1126/science.1103197. View

11.

Dionigi F, Reier T, Pawolek Z, Gliech M, Strasser P . Design Criteria, Operating Conditions, and Nickel-Iron Hydroxide Catalyst Materials for Selective Seawater Electrolysis. ChemSusChem. 2016; 9(9):962-72. DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201501581. View

12.

Huang W, Lin C . Iron phosphate modified calcium iron oxide as an efficient and robust catalyst in electrocatalyzing oxygen evolution from seawater. Faraday Discuss. 2019; 215(0):205-215. DOI: 10.1039/c8fd00172c. View

13.

Kuang Y, Kenney M, Meng Y, Hung W, Liu Y, Huang J . Solar-driven, highly sustained splitting of seawater into hydrogen and oxygen fuels. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019; 116(14):6624-6629. PMC: 6452679. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1900556116. View

14.

Fukuzumi S, Lee Y, Nam W . Fuel Production from Seawater and Fuel Cells Using Seawater. ChemSusChem. 2017; 10(22):4264-4276. DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201701381. View

15.

Xu Y, Kraft M, Xu R . Metal-free carbonaceous electrocatalysts and photocatalysts for water splitting. Chem Soc Rev. 2016; 45(11):3039-52. DOI: 10.1039/c5cs00729a. View

16.

Li P, Wang M, Duan X, Zheng L, Cheng X, Zhang Y . Boosting oxygen evolution of single-atomic ruthenium through electronic coupling with cobalt-iron layered double hydroxides. Nat Commun. 2019; 10(1):1711. PMC: 6461613. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09666-0. View

17.

Walter M, Warren E, McKone J, Boettcher S, Mi Q, Santori E . Solar water splitting cells. Chem Rev. 2010; 110(11):6446-73. DOI: 10.1021/cr1002326. View

18.

Ren Z, Xu X, Wang X, Gao B, Yue Q, Song W . FTIR, Raman, and XPS analysis during phosphate, nitrate and Cr(VI) removal by amine cross-linking biosorbent. J Colloid Interface Sci. 2016; 468:313-323. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.01.079. View