Publication date: 15th December 2025
One of the urgent critical raw material (CRM) issues in PEMWE (proton exchange membrane water electrolysis) is the high loading of Iridium as catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). PEMWE technology offers efficient hydrogen production under demanding conditions such as high current densities, high pressures, and varying loads. However, the usage of CRM hinders large scale application of PEMWE because of supply chain issues: there is simply not enough Iridium produced. Iridium is still the catalyst of choice because of the high resistance to acidic and highly oxidative environments within the PEMWE. Ultimately, catalyst loadings should be lowered to <0.2 mg cm–2 to ensure GW size production of green hydrogen with PEMWE.[1]
With the currently used catalyst coated membrane (CCM) technology it is difficult to lower have catalyst layers with ultra-low Iridium (<0.1 mg cm–2) without compromising the catalyst layer’s conductivity.[2][3] We show how to effectively use the catalyst coated electrode (CCE) concept using spatial atomical layer deposition (sALD, WO2023/287284 A1) technology to coat these electrodes with thin layers of Iridium.[4][5] We will show that we can utilize loadings as low as 0.01-0.02 mg cm–2 while retaining up to 76-85% of the performance; achieving a 100-200 times reduction in CRM use compared to state-of-the-art Iridium loadings of 1 up to 2 mg cm–2 in CCM technology. The performance and durability of these CCEs was validated in a single cell PEMWE setup. Pre-test and post-test characterizations, such as confocal microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, showed the importance of substrate effects on the performance and durability of the catalyst. We will show how, by controlling the PTL morphology, degree of surface oxidation, and catalyst chemistry, CRM usage of PEMWE can be drastically reduced.
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