In Situ Exsolution of Metal Nanoparticles from a Perovskite Cathode To Promote CO2 Electrolysis

The solid oxide electrolyzer with perovskite as the cathode can electrolyze CO₂ to produce a valuable chemical resource, revealing the great potential of direct electrolysis of CO₂ at high temperatures. However, its insufficient electrocatalytic activity limits the performance of a solid oxide electrolysis cell. In the present work, we successfully anchored metal nanoparticles, such as nickel and copper, on the perovskite cathode surface to form a composite cathode, thereby creating an active electrochemical interface for CO₂ cleavage to improve the electrocatalytic activity for CO₂ electrolysis and Faraday efficiency improvement. The perovskite cathode based on metal nanoparticles can increase the conductivity of the composite cathode compared to an undoped perovskite cathode, and it can be considered that the improved CO₂ electrolytic performance is attributed to the synergistic effect of the metal nanocatalysts with the La_0.8Sr_0.2CrO_3−δ ceramic electrodes. The electrochemical properties remained stable after 100 h of high-temperature testing, suggesting that the construction of metal–oxide active interfaces can improve the electrocatalytic performance and durability of the materials.