LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Freund, Michael
Tong, Anthony

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Chemistry

Chemistry

Water splitting is a means of producing hydrogen fuel from water, a potential clean source of energy. Bipolar membranes facilitate the separation of water molecules into incompatible regions of high and low pH, allowing evolution of hydrogen and oxygen under acidic and basic conditions, respectively. To further aid this, catalyst layers can be added via layer-by-layer deposition to the bipolar membrane system to facilitate water dissociation. Graphene oxide and phosphomolybdic acid were deposited via layer-by-layer deposition, and these layers were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The completed membranes with catalysts were then evaluated. A custom H-cell, with galvanostatic potentiometry, was used to evaluate the efficiency of these produced bipolar membrane systems. The potential across the membrane relative to applied current density was used to determine the overpotential above the theoretical minimum potential for water dissociation, and thus catalyst efficacy. Graphene oxide proved to be an effective catalyst. It can be readily deposited via layer-by-layer deposition, and a theoretical efficiency was approached in terms of overpotential at five layers of graphene oxide deposited within a bipolar membrane system. The efficacy of the experimental system was close to a commercial standard membrane used as a baseline. This research will lead to more efficient bipolar membranes for producing hydrogen fuel.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3407