Direct Seawater Electrolysis via Bio-Inspired Nano-Membranes: Mimicking Mangrove Root Filtration to Overcome Scaling and Chlorine Toxicity

The commercialization of green hydrogen faces a critical bottleneck due to its heavy reliance onfreshwater resources and the technical barriers of direct seawater electrolysis. Direct seawatersplitting typically induces severe electrode poisoning via the Chloride Evolution Reaction (CER)and rapid equipment corrosion. This study proposes a novel, bio-inspired solution: integrating anano-engineered hybrid membrane modeled after the selective osmotic filtration mechanisms ofmangrove roots. The proposed membrane creates an electrostatic and size-exclusion barrieragainst aggressive chloride ions while permitting selective water permeation for immediateelectrochemical splitting, bypassing the need for energy-intensive preliminary desalinationplants.