New Insight into the Doped Strontium Titanate Cathode with In Situ Exsolved Nickel Nanoparticles for Electrolysis of Carbon Dioxide

Abstract One way to avoid CO 2 pollution is changing it into CO by solid oxide electrolyzers, in which doped SrTiO 3 can be used as cathode materials. It is found that in situ exsolved Ni nanoparticles in doped SrTiO 3 cathode can further improve the electrolysis performance. In this work, (La 0.2 Sr 0.8 ) 0.85 Ti 0.8 Cr 0.1 Ni 0.1 O 3− δ cathode with in situ exsolved Ni particles is investigated. A new model proposed explains the influence of exsolution process on crystal structure. Based on thermogravimetric analysis, it is estimated that about 13.6% to 37.4% Ni atoms exsolve out of original cathode. With the new cathode containing Ni nanoparticles, the yield of CO from electrolysis is improved at about 50% and the current efficiency is increased at about 10%.