Abstract

An almost abrupt change in attitude towards applications in the field of renewable energies has emerged in recent months, both among decision-makers in politics and in companies [1]. In particular, the topic of hydrogen production by electrolysis plays an eminently important role. In water electrolysis, water is split into its constituent ¬parts hydrogen and oxygen using electrical energy. The resulting hydrogen is of interest to future energy systems for a number of reasons, including the fact that hydrogen can serve as a storage medium for electrical energy from renewable energy conversion systems such as photovoltaic or wind turbines [2]. Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis is considered particularly suitable for this type of application. In polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis, the water to be split is fed via so-called porous transport layers to the catalyst layer where the water splitting takes place. These porous transport layers must ensure the outward transport of the water, the outward transport of the produced gas, and the electrical contacting of the electrode [2]. While a few years ago the topic of liquid metal injection molding made a furor and became established in some industrial sectors, the technologies presented here to produce composite materials from metallic powders has been able to establish itself in the energy storage media, i.e., especially in hydrogen production [3]. The key idea here is that conventional polymers are combined with the powders. For example, titanium powder is shown in (Figure 1).