Fluoride‐Engineered Electrolyte for Highly Stable and Efficient Alkaline Seawater Electrolysis at 2 A cm <sup>−2</sup>
Seawater electrolysis offers an energy-efficient route for hydrogen production while alleviating freshwater scarcity. However, the presence of Cl<sup>-</sup> in seawater compromises anode activity and induces severe corrosion, requiring constructing complex electrode architectures that hinder large-scale application. In this work, we demonstrate that incorporating F<sup>-</sup> as an electrolyte additive significantly enhances the performance of NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) anodes. Upon optimizing the F<sup>-</sup> concentration, benchmark NiFe-LDH showed the lower overpotential than that of the F<sup>-</sup>-free system, and achieved stable operation at 2 A cm<sup>-2</sup> for 1000 h in seawater electrolyte, representing an approximately 500-fold improvement over the control set of experiment. The consistency between spectroscopic characterization and multi-scale simulation results revealed that F<sup>-</sup>, by virtue of its high electronegativity and charge density, modulates the electronic environment of Ni and Fe sites, enhances the adsorption of OH<sup>-</sup>, and thereby improves OER activity. Moreover, the introduction of F<sup>-</sup> increases free water content and modulates the hydrogen bond network to promote OH<sup>-</sup> transportation while repelling Cl<sup>-</sup> at the electrode-electrolyte interface by polarizing the O─H bonds of water molecules on NiFe-LDH surface. This straightforward electrolyte engineering strategy provides a practical and scalable solution for seawater electrolysis.
Authors
- Yaping Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2927-0496)
- Zexiang Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7432-7936)
- Daojin Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8466-7413)
- Xiaoming Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3831-6233)
- Wei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6206-8321)
- Yaling Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7122-0268)
- Yongqiang Yang
- Liang Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3922-3454)
- Sirui Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8518-9763)
- Aiqing Cao
- Jingjin Cheng
- Yixin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9730-1541)
Institutions
- Northwestern University (US)
- Southwest Petroleum University (CN)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Beijing University of Chemical Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-10-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202518106
- Citations
- 12
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.36
Funders
- Beijing Nova Program
- National Key Research and Development Program of China