posted on 2022-02-07, 16:06authored bySamuel
S. Veroneau, Alaina C. Hartnett, Agnes E. Thorarinsdottir, Daniel G. Nocera
Scalable, accessible, and affordable
renewable energy demands commensurately
scalable, accessible, and affordable energy storage. Foremost in this
pursuit is hydrogen gas, which may be generated through electrochemical
water splitting. Whereas conventional electrochemical water splitting
relies upon molecularly pure water, recent efforts have shifted toward
integrating natural water sources, the most abundant of which is seawater.
Herein we report a means by which forward osmosis may be exploited
to enable electrochemical seawater splitting with no loss in efficiency
while using earth-abundant metal catalysts. By coupling these processes,
we demonstrate an essential design element wherein both the anode
and cathode are protected from the seawater source.