---
title: "Toward Low Loading and High Utilization Ratio of Iridium Catalyst for PEM Water Electrolyzers Using Smoltek Carbon Nanofibers"
canonical_url: "https://www.smoltek.com/toward-low-loading-and-high-utilization-ratio-of-iridium-catalyst-for-pem-water-electrolyzers-using-smoltek-carbon-nanofibers/7722/"
date: 2023-08-20
author: "Ellinor Ehrnberg"
featured_image: "https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/smoltek-hydrogen-1000h-nanostructure-2024-04-10.webp"
categories:
  - name: "Research"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/category/research.md"
---

# Toward Low Loading and High Utilization Ratio of Iridium Catalyst for PEM Water Electrolyzers Using Smoltek Carbon Nanofibers

Smoltek address­es the hydro­gen indus­try’s main chal­lenges for enabling cost-effi­cient pro­duc­tion of fos­sil-free hydro­gen by dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduc­ing the cost of PEM water electrolyzers. 

- **By focus­ing on:**
- Anode side cat­a­lyst is expensive.
- Good elec­tri­cal con­duc­tiv­i­ty is important.

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- **We can:**
- Increase anode sur­face area by Smoltek CNFs.
- Low­er Ir load­ing amount to ≤0.2 mg Ir/​cm2.

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- **We do this by grow CNFs on anode PTLs:**
- Cre­at­ing a Cat­a­lyst coat­ed PTL substrate
- Where the CNFs increase sur­face area (CNF length can be con­trolled from 1 to 30 µm)
- Cor­ro­sion pro­tec­tion: CNFs cov­ered with a 50 nm Pt lay­er and an elec­trode­posit­ed Ir layer

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- **This results in:**
- Con­trolled Ir load­ing by our own depo­si­tion process
- Decrease Ir cat­a­lyst load­ing to as low as 0.1 mgIr/​cm2
- Per­for­mance is bet­ter than com­mer­cial Ir cat­a­lyst ink

[Read more](https://www.efcf.com/2023/)