Improving the performance of solid oxide electrolysis cell with gold nanoparticles-modified LSM-YSZ anode

Abstract

Abstract Gold, as the common current collector in solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC), is traditionally considered to be inert for oxygen evolution reaction at the anode of SOEC. Herein, gold nanoparticles were loaded onto conventional strontium doped lanthanum manganite-yttria stabilized zirconia (LSM-YSZ) anode, which evidently improved the performance of oxygen evolution reaction at 800 °C. The current densities at 1.2 V and 1.4 V increased by 60.0% and 46.9%, respectively, after loading gold nanoparticles onto the LSM-YSZ anode. Physicochemical characterizations and electrochemical measurements suggested that the improved SOEC performance was attributed to the accelerated electron transfer of elementary process in anodic polarization reaction and the newly generated triple phase boundaries in gold nanoparticles-loaded LSM-YSZ anode.