3D‐Printing Starfish‐Inspired Gas‐Evolving Electrode Scaffolds Enable Ampere‐Level Alkaline Water Electrolysis

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Authors: Mengqi Luo, Wei Sang, Yu Tian, Xingchuan Li, Jingxuan Chen, Gangwen Fu, Zhenzhi Xia, Cheng Chen, Xi Xu, Tongle Bu, Jian Peng, John Wang
+1 more Zongkui Kou
Cited by: 4
References: 58

Abstract

ABSTRACT Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) mitigates the high cost and immaturity of polymer electrolyte membrane‐based water electrolysis (PEMWE) for green hydrogen production. However, its industrial application at ampere‐level current densities (ACDs) remains challenging. Conventional disordered gas‐evolving electrode (GEE) scaffolds endow with sluggish bubble detachment kinetics and mechanical instability, preventing operation at high ACDs, while rational scaffold designs for accelerating bubble detachment remain rarely explored. Inspired by starfish scaffolds, we design and fabricate a biomimetic GEE with conical sieve‐plate hole scaffolds via 3D printing. Combined COMSOL simulations and in situ bubble behavior analyses reveal that like the breath and mass exchange of starfish, the sieve plate optimizes bubble force balance to accelerate detachment, while the conical structure conducts bubbles rapidly into the electrolyte. Such starfish‐inspired GEE design yields a 21‐fold lower mass‐transfer overpotential vs. current density slope than that of common flat round‐hole scaffold. Consequently, champion lowest overpotentials of 159 and 430 mV among all the well‐documented state‐of‐the‐art GEEs are achieved at the ACD of 1000 mA cm −2 for HER and OER, respectively. Moreover, our starfish‐inspired GEE sustains ACDs operation with ≈100% Faraday efficiency for over 150 h, demonstrating its potential for practical AWE applications.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion Advanced battery technologies research Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction

Publication details

Journal / source
Advanced Materials
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
38
Issue
33
Pages
e73344–e73344
Publication date
8 May 2026
Language
EN