METHOD FOR PREPARING A POLYMER MEMBRANE FOR A POLYMER ELECTROLYTE WATER ELECTROLYSER

    公开(公告)号:EP3739678A1

    公开(公告)日:2020-11-18

    申请号:EP19175071.0

    申请日:2019-05-17

    摘要: It is the objective of the present invention to provide a method for preparing a polymer membrane for a polymer electrolyte water electrolyser in order to achieve thin membranes with high crossover suppression and without showing a negative impact on the cell performance.
    This objective is achieved according to the present invention by a method to prepare an ionomer of an ion exchange membrane (anion or cation exchange) with a recombination catalyst to prevent gas crossover of species, such as hydrogen and/or oxygen, to anodic and cathodic cell compartments of an electrochemical cell; said method comprising the steps of:
    a) providing the ionomer as a proton or an anion exchange polymer;
    b) selecting the recombination catalyst from the precious metals group;
    c) providing the selected recombination catalyst in an ionic form being comprised in a liquid metal salt solution;
    d) immersing the ion exchange membrane into the liquid metal salt solution thereby exchanging at least a part of the ionic ionomer ports with the ionic form of the recombination catalyst;
    e) assembling the immersed ion exchange membrane in the electrochemical cell; and
    f) at least partially reducing the content of the ionic form of the recombination catalyst into the metallic form by forcing hydrogen to permeate through the ionomer of the ion exchange membrane.
    Therefore, the present invention presents a new reduction method for Pt-Ions by diffusing hydrogen through the PEM in a PEWE cell. The presented solution provides a way to achieve thin membranes with high crossover suppression, without a negative impact on the cell performance and a reduction insitu on the flight.