Electrocatalysis & Energy Conversion
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Acidic Water Electrolysis Catalysis
OER Catalyst
What function converts aqueous half-cell dissolution rate into MEA voltage-degradation rate at 1 A cm-2 and 80 C across eight non-iridium compositions?
THE QUESTION
Which non-iridium composition sustains OER overpotential below [threshold] at 1 A/cm2 for [duration] in acid — and does it terminate by dissolution, amorphisation or passivation? Verifier: parallel electrochemical screen then MEA, with ICP-MS of effluent. [baseline: to verify]
WORK ORDER
Screen-to-MEA dissolution transfer function for eight non-iridium acidic OER compositions
BACKGROUND
What this Apodex Lab is
Proton-exchange-membrane water electrolysers split water in acid to generate hydrogen, but their anode relies on iridium to catalyse the oxygen evolution reaction. Iridium is scarce, which restricts large-scale deployment and drives research into non-iridium alternatives such as ruthenium-based oxides. Scaling these alternative materials requires catalysts that survive current densities of 1 A cm-2 at 80 C without rapid decay.
Most durability claims for non-iridium catalysts come from aqueous half-cell screens operating at 10 mA cm-2 over hours. When the same material is tested in both a liquid model cell and a single-cell membrane electrode assembly, dissolution measurements diverge sharply rather than following an established conversion factor. A metal loss rate of 1 or 10 ug cm-2 h-1 in a beaker of 0.5 M H2SO4 provides no known calculation for cell voltage degradation at 1 A cm-2. Furthermore, standard beaker screens measure single degradation pathways, leaving it uncertain whether an operating anode terminates through metal dissolution, loss of crystallinity, or surface passivation.
The OER Catalyst Apodex Lab measures eight non-iridium compositions across both an acidic half-cell screen and single-cell membrane electrode assemblies operating concurrently at 1 A cm-2 and 80 C. By tracking metal loss in the effluent of both cell types using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry alongside post-mortem surface analysis, the lab fits a mathematical transfer function relating early half-cell dissolution to operating cell degradation. This calibration yields explicit per-element dissolution limits for 5,000 h and 20,000 h of anode life. If the power law holds across compositions, stack integrators can filter candidate catalysts using bench-top liquid screens before fabricating full cells; if no correlation emerges, qualification protocols can shift away from unrepresentative beaker tests.
WHY NOW
Why the field is spending on an assumption
Iridium scarcity forces the search for alternative acidic oxygen-evolution catalysts, yet published durability claims rely almost entirely on aqueous half-cell screens at 10 mA cm-2. The single study measuring metal dissolution in both an aqueous model cell and a membrane-electrode assembly on identical material found severe divergence rather than a simple conversion. Multi-channel half-cell platforms and concurrent single-cell test systems now permit simultaneous measurement under matched conditions. Without a cross-composition calibration, stack integrators qualify candidate materials against screening numbers whose relation to stack lifetime remains unknown.
WHAT WE’D BUY
What we would ask a laboratory to run
We are not buying the answer. We are buying a measurement with an interval — and the bars it will be compared against.
Eight non-iridium catalyst compositions are prepared and tested across two arms from single powder lots. In the first arm, a sixteen-channel half-cell platform measures per-element metal dissolution in 0.5 M H2SO4 at 80 C using effluent mass spectrometry. In the second, eighteen single-cell membrane-electrode assemblies run concurrently at 1 A cm-2 and 80 C, tracking voltage degradation, fluoride release, and effluent metal loss. Post-mortem analysis attributes catalyst termination across metal dissolution, amorphisation, and surface passivation. The deliverable is the fitted power-law exponent relating screening dissolution to MEA voltage degradation, reported with its 95 percent confidence interval, leave-one-out prediction bounds, and derived tolerable per-element dissolution thresholds for 5,000 h and 20,000 h of cell life.
SCOPE & LIMITS
The conversion applies strictly to steady-state operation at 1 A cm-2 and 80 C under the frozen protocol, without measuring dynamic load cycling or long-term durability beyond 250 h.
WHO EXECUTES
The kind of lab that can run this
An electrochemistry contract laboratory or university core facility able to run parallel acidic half-cell dissolution screens and single-cell PEM membrane-electrode-assembly tests at 1 A cm-2 with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry of the effluent.
EXECUTOR KIND
wet-lab
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