Decoupled electrolysis for hydrogen production and hydrazine oxidation via high-capacity and stable pre-protonated vanadium hexacyanoferrate.

Abstract

Decoupled electrolysis for hydrogen production with the aid of a redox mediator enables two half-reactions operating at different rates, time, and spaces, which offers great flexibility in operation. Herein, a pre-protonated vanadium hexacyanoferrate (p-VHCF) redox mediator is synthesized. It offers a high reversible specific capacity up to 128 mAh g^-1 and long cycling performance of 6000 cycles with capacity retention about 100% at a current density of 10 A g^-1 due to the enhanced hydrogen bonding network. By using this mediator, a membrane-free water electrolytic cell is built to achieve decoupled hydrogen and oxygen production. More importantly, a decoupled electrolysis system for hydrogen production and hydrazine oxidation is constructed, which realizes not only separate hydrogen generation but electricity generation through the p-VHCF-N₂H₄ liquid battery. Therefore, this work enables the flexible energy conversion and storage with hydrogen production driven by solar cell at day-time and electricity output at night-time.