electrochemical reconstruction of SrFeIrMoO perovskite cathode for CO electrolysis in solid oxide electrolysis cells.

Solid oxide electrolysis cells provide a practical solution for the direct conversion of CO to other chemicals (i.e. CO), however, an in-depth mechanistic understanding of the dynamic reconstruction of active sites for perovskite cathodes during CO electrolysis remains a great challenge. Herein, we identify that iridium-doped SrFeIrMoO (SFIrM) perovskite displays a dynamic electrochemical reconstruction feature during CO electrolysis with abundant exsolution of highly dispersed IrFe alloy nanoparticles on the SFIrM surface. The reconstructed IrFe@SFIrM interfaces deliver a current density of 1.46 A cm while maintaining over 99% CO Faradaic efficiency, representing a 25.8% improvement compared with the SrFeMoO counterpart. electrochemical spectroscopy measurements and density functional theory calculations suggest that the improved CO electrolysis activity originates from the facilitated formation of carbonate intermediates at the IrFe@SFIrM interfaces. Our work may open the possibility of using an electrochemical poling method for CO electrolysis in practice.