IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v262y2026ics0960148126001989.html

Effect of Nb interlayer thickness on the performance of porous transport layers for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers

Author

Listed:
  • Anurag,
  • Gupta, Abhay
  • Shahgaldi, Samaneh

Abstract

Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) integrated with renewable energy sources is a crucial technology for energy transition. However, the high cost of precious metal-coated porous transport layers (PTLs) is one of the limiting factors for the widespread use of PEMWE. Multi-layered coatings with cost-effective Nb as an interlayer and thin layer of precious metal (one-fourth of commercial) as a top layer could serve as a potential alternative to commercial PTL in PEMWE. This study explored the impact of different thicknesses of Nb interlayer (150, 200, 350 nm) on the electrochemical behavior of multi-layered NbPt coatings, by comparing them with two single layered Pt-coated PTLs (in-house Pt-coated PTL and commercial Pt-coated PTL) under PEMWE simulated condition. The result showed that the Ti PTLs with Nb as an interlayer (150, 200, 350 nm) performed better than the single layered in-house Pt-coated PTL. The best performing multi-layered NbPt (Nb = 350 nm, Pt = 50 nm) sample was finally compared with commercial Pt (200 nm) coated PTL in the in-situ condition of PEMWE. The multi-layered NbPt coating showed an equivalent performance (1.967 V@3.0 A cm−2) compared to commercial Pt coating (1.958 V@3.0 A cm−2), making Nb as a promising cost-effective interlayer for PTL coating.

Suggested Citation

  • Anurag, & Gupta, Abhay & Shahgaldi, Samaneh, 2026. "Effect of Nb interlayer thickness on the performance of porous transport layers for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:262:y:2026:i:c:s0960148126001989
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2026.125373
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148126001989
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2026.125373?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:262:y:2026:i:c:s0960148126001989. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.