Enhancing CO<sub>2</sub> Catalytic Adsorption on an Fe Nanoparticle-Decorated LaSrFeO<sub>4 + δ</sub> Cathode for CO<sub>2</sub> Electrolysis
Changyang Liu, Shuting Li, Jianquan Gao, Liuzhen Bian, Yunting Hou, Lijun Wang, Jun Peng, Jinxiao Bao, Xiwen Song, Shengli An
Abstract
The development of cathode materials with high catalytic activity and low cost is a challenge for CO2 electrolysis based on solid oxide electrolysis cells. Herein, we report a low-cost and highly active metallic Fe nanoparticle-decorated Ruddlesden-Popper (La, Sr)FeO4+δ cathode catalyst (Fe-RPLSF), which shows a high oxygen vacancy concentration and robust CO2 reduction rate. At 850 °C, the current density of the electrolysis cell with the Fe-RPLSF cathode reaches −1920 mA cm–2 at a voltage of 1.5 V, and the Faraday efficiency is as high as 100%. The polarization resistance at low frequency (0.1–10 Hz), which is the rate-limit step for CO2 electrolysis, significantly decreases with the exsolved Fe nanoparticles because of improved CO2 dissociative adsorption. Moreover, our electrolysis cell demonstrates acceptable short-term stability for direct CO2 electrolysis.