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Designing quinone-based electrodes with rapid kinetics for membrane-free decoupled acidic water electrolysis

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  • Lv, Fei
  • Zhang, Tuo
  • Zhang, Chuxuan
  • Wang, Pengfei
  • Pan, Lixia
  • Chen, Yubin

Abstract

Decoupled water electrolysis (DWE) with organic small-molecule mediator electrode enables the temporal and spatial separation of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Quinone compounds have the capacity to incorporate protons in acidic electrolyte. Herein, this work proposes a range of quinone electrodes as redox mediator for decoupled acidic water electrolysis, in which tetrachlorobenzoquinone (TCBQ) exhibits specific capacity of 129 mAh g−1 at 2 A g−1 due to the electron-donating effect of chlorine groups, superior to the benzoquinone (BQ) and tetramethylbenzoquinone (TMBQ) electrodes. Furthermore, a membrane-free DWE system is constructed for separated H2 production, demonstrating the feasibility of flexible and environmentally sustainable hydrogen generation. When combined with Si solar cell (efficiency: 18.1 %), a solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency of 12.5 % can be obtained.

Suggested Citation

  • Lv, Fei & Zhang, Tuo & Zhang, Chuxuan & Wang, Pengfei & Pan, Lixia & Chen, Yubin, 2026. "Designing quinone-based electrodes with rapid kinetics for membrane-free decoupled acidic water electrolysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:257:y:2026:i:c:s096014812502453x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.124789
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Fei Lv & Jiazhe Wu & Xuan Liu & Zhihao Zheng & Lixia Pan & Xuewen Zheng & Liejin Guo & Yubin Chen, 2024. "Decoupled electrolysis for hydrogen production and hydrazine oxidation via high-capacity and stable pre-protonated vanadium hexacyanoferrate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Iesalnieks, Mairis & Vanags, Mārtiņš & Alsiņa, Linda Laima & Šutka, Andris, 2024. "Increasing the capacity of pseudocapacitive WO3 auxiliary electrode for enhanced two-step decoupled acid water electrolysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    3. Zhao, Meng-Jie & He, Qian & Xiang, Ting & Ya, Hua-Qin & Luo, Hao & Wan, Shanhong & Ding, Jun & He, Jian-Bo, 2023. "Automatic operation of decoupled water electrolysis based on bipolar electrode," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 583-591.
    4. Davide Tonelli & Lorenzo Rosa & Paolo Gabrielli & Ken Caldeira & Alessandro Parente & Francesco Contino, 2023. "Global land and water limits to electrolytic hydrogen production using wind and solar resources," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Jie Wei & Yangfan Shao & Jingbo Xu & Fang Yin & Zejian Li & Haitao Qian & Yinping Wei & Liang Chang & Yu Han & Jia Li & Lin Gan, 2024. "Sequential oxygen evolution and decoupled water splitting via electrochemical redox reaction of nickel hydroxides," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
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