Sustainable continuous seawater electrolysis using atomic interface catalyst via liquid-medium strategy

Seawater electrolysis faces major challenges, including side reactions, ionic poisoning, and corrosion, leading to low efficiency and poor stability, and it is therefore of great necessity to develop advanced catalysts and systems. Here, we design a sustainable system for high-efficiency continuous seawater electrolysis using Mo–O–Ni atomic interface catalyst. In this system, the water molecules in seawater migrate across a balloon filter into the electrolyte and undergo continuous electrolysis in an anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer. We further employ a liquid-medium strategy and construct Mo–O–Ni atomic interfaces on support walls featuring uniform bowl-like well structures. The formation of the Mo–O–Ni atomic interface bridges synergistically boosts the steps of water dissociation and hydrogen generation, thus conferring a low overpotential. The system can sustain continuous seawater electrolysis with a current density of 400 mA cm–2 for > 2800 h. This work not only establishes a feasible synthesis strategy for constructing synergistic atomic interfaces but also demonstrates a high-performance and practical system for continuous seawater electrolysis. Seawater electrolysis faces challenges like corrosion and low efficiency, necessitating robust catalysts. Here, the authors report a Mo–O–Ni atomic interface system using a liquid-medium strategy to achieve high-efficiency, continuous seawater electrolysis for over 2800 hours.