Encapsulated Co–Ni alloy boosts high-temperature CO2 electroreduction
Journal
Nature
Journal Volume
641
Journal Issue
8065
Start Page
1156
End Page
1161
ISSN
0028-0836
1476-4687
Date Issued
2025-05-14
Author(s)
Ma, Wenchao
Morales-Vidal, Jordi
Tian, Jiaming
Liu, Meng-Ting
Jin, Seongmin
Ren, Wenhao
Taubmann, Julian
Chatzichristodoulou, Christodoulos
Luterbacher, Jeremy
López, Núria
Hu, Xile
Abstract
Electrochemical CO2 reduction into chemicals and fuels holds great promise for renewable energy storage and carbon recycling1, 2–3. Although high-temperature CO2 electroreduction in solid oxide electrolysis cells is industrially relevant, current catalysts have modest energy efficiency and a limited lifetime at high current densities, generally below 70% and 200 h, respectively, at 1 A cm−2 and temperatures of 800 °C or higher4, 5, 6, 7–8. Here we develop an encapsulated Co–Ni alloy catalyst using Sm2O3-doped CeO2 that exhibits an energy efficiency of 90% and a lifetime of more than 2,000 h at 1 A cm−2 for high-temperature CO2-to-CO conversion at 800 °C. Its selectivity towards CO is about 100%, and its single-pass yield reaches 90%. We show that the efficacy of our catalyst arises from its unique encapsulated structure and optimized alloy composition, which simultaneously enable enhanced CO2 adsorption, moderate CO adsorption and suppressed metal agglomeration. This work provides an efficient strategy for the design of catalysts for high-temperature reactions that overcomes the typical trade-off between activity and stability and has potential industrial applications.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Type
journal article