Investigation on Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Performance of Porous Electrode Prepared by Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Abstract

The additive manufacturing (AM) process attracts widespread attention because intricate hollow structures can be directly fabricated without further processing. In this study, two batches of cylindrical porous electrodes with different lattice structures are prepared by the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). The influence of electrode lattice structure parameters (structure type, lattice unit size) on the efficiency of electrochemical hydrogen evolution is investigated. The hydrogen evolution performance of the electrode is evaluated through the energy consumption experiment and the electrochemical analysis. The results reveal that compared with the solid cylindrical electrode, porous electrodes achieve a significantly lighter weight, under the same lattice unit size, compare to the Rhombic Dodecahedron lattice structure, the electrode with the Dode Medium structure shows better hydrogen evolution performance. Electrode with 8mm lattice aperture in two structures has better electrolyzing water activity to produce hydrogen. This present work exhibit AM technology that provides a feasible processing scheme for the high specific surface area substrate electrode necessary for large-scale and efficient industrial hydrogen production.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing, Porous electrode, Hydrogen evolution