Infiltration of Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9 nanoparticles on Sr2Fe1.5Mo0.5O6- cathode for CO2 electroreduction in solid oxide electrolysis cell

Solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) can electrochemically convert CO2 to CO at the gas-solid interface with a high current density and Faradaic efficiency, which has attracted increasing attentions in recent years. Exploring efficient catalyst for electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) at the cathode is a grand challenge for the research and development of SOEC. Sr2Fe1.5Mo0.5O6-δ (SFM) is one kind of promising cathode materials for SOEC, but suffers from insufficient activity for CO2RR. Herein, Gd0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (GDC) nanoparticles were infiltrated onto the SFM surface to construct a composite GDC-SFM cathode and improve the CO2RR performance in SOEC. The current density over the GDC infiltrated SFM cathode with a GDC loading of 12.8 wt% reaches 0.446 A cm−2 at 1.6 V and 800 °C, which is much higher than that over the SFM cathode (0.283 A cm−2). Temperature-programmed desorption of CO2 measurements suggest that the infiltration of GDC nanoparticles significantly increases the density of surface active sites and three phase boundaries (TPBs), which are beneficial for CO2 adsorption and subsequent conversion. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results indicate that the polarization resistance of 12.8 wt% GDC-SFM cathode was obviously decreased from 0.46 to 0.30 Ω cm2 after the infiltration of GDC nanoparticles.