Half-Electrolysis of Water with the Aid of a Supercapacitor Electrode

作者：Chen, Yao; Chen, George Zheng^*

来源：ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2023, 6(11): 6104-6110.

DOI：10.1021/acsaem.3c00615

• half-electrolysis
• electrolysis of water
• stepwise
• supercapacitor electrode
• diaphragm

Half-electrolysis runs one desirable half-cell reactionwith theaid of a counter supercapacitor electrode which replaces the otherunwanted half-cell reaction occurred inevitably in conventional electrolysis.Herein, it is developed to complete the whole cell reaction of waterelectrolysis, in alternative steps, with a capacitive activated carbon(AC) electrode and an electrolysis Pt electrode. When positively chargingthe AC electrode, a hydrogen evolution reaction occurs at the Pt electrode.By reversing the current, the charge stored in the AC electrode isdischarged to assist the oxygen evolution reaction on the same Ptelectrode. Consecutive completion of the two processes realizes theoverall reaction of water electrolysis. This strategy leads to stepwiseproduction of H-2 and O-2 without the need ofa diaphragm in the cell and hence results in a lower energy consumptioncompared with the practical conventional electrolysis.