Promoting High-Temperature Oxygen Evolution Reaction via Infiltration of PrCoO_3−δ Nanoparticles

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.