Promoting High-Temperature Oxygen Evolution Reaction via Infiltration of PrCoO<sub>3−δ</sub> Nanoparticles
Qingxue Liu, Rongtan Li, Weicheng Feng, Jingwei Li, Xiaomin Zhang, Houfu Lv, Yuxiang Shen, Yuefeng Song, Guoxiong Wang, Xinhe Bao
Abstract
The sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode limits the performance of CO2 electrolysis in a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC). As a result, much effort has been devoted to developing efficient catalysts for OER. Herein, a composite anode is exploited by infiltrating PrCoO3−δ (PC) nanoparticles onto the surface of Pr0.5Ba0.5Co0.7Fe0.2Ti0.1O3−δ-Gd0.2Ce0.8O2−δ (PBCFT-GDC). Electrochemical measurements, in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra, and physicochemical characterizations indicate that the addition of PC with high electrical conductivity could expand the triple-phase boundaries and motivate the oxygen spillover at PC/PBCFT-GDC interfaces, which further boosts the OER activity and CO2 electrolysis performance. With the PC infiltration amount increasing from 0 to 9 wt %, the maximum current density of 1.43 A cm–2 at 1.6 V and 800 °C is achieved for the SOEC with 6% PC/PBCFT-GDC anode, which is 43% higher than that of SOEC with bare PBCFT-GDC anode. This newly designed composite electrode material has a good application prospect as an active SOEC anode for CO2 electrolysis.