Preparation of anodic catalysts via in situ exsolution of Pt nanoparticles for a methane oxidation enhanced SOEC process

doi:10.1016/j.cjche.2025.07.015

中国化学工程学报 ›› 2025, Vol. 86 ›› Issue (10): 13-24.DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2025.07.015

• Special Issue on Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology of Tianjin University • 上一篇下一篇

Preparation of anodic catalysts via in situ exsolution of Pt nanoparticles for a methane oxidation enhanced SOEC process

Liming Zhou¹, Kejing Wu², Qiang Hu³, Houfang Lu^1,2, Bin Liang^1,2

1. School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China;
2. Institute of New Energy and Low-Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610207, China;
3. Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute Tsinghua University, Chengdu 610299, China

收稿日期:2025-03-23 修回日期:2025-07-30 接受日期:2025-07-30 出版日期:2025-10-28 发布日期:2025-08-23
通讯作者: Bin Liang,E-mail:liangbin@scu.edu.cn
基金资助:
This work was supported by the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (22138008), the financial support provided by the State Key Laboratory of Catalytic Materials and Reaction Engineering (RIPP, SINOPEC), the Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (22478257) and Sichuan Province Advanced Building Materials Production-Education Integration Innovation Demonstration Platform (Chuancaijiao [2022] No. 106).

Preparation of anodic catalysts via in situ exsolution of Pt nanoparticles for a methane oxidation enhanced SOEC process

Liming Zhou¹, Kejing Wu², Qiang Hu³, Houfang Lu^1,2, Bin Liang^1,2

1. School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China;
2. Institute of New Energy and Low-Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610207, China;
3. Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute Tsinghua University, Chengdu 610299, China

Received:2025-03-23 Revised:2025-07-30 Accepted:2025-07-30 Online:2025-10-28 Published:2025-08-23
Contact: Bin Liang,E-mail:liangbin@scu.edu.cn
Supported by:
This work was supported by the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (22138008), the financial support provided by the State Key Laboratory of Catalytic Materials and Reaction Engineering (RIPP, SINOPEC), the Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (22478257) and Sichuan Province Advanced Building Materials Production-Education Integration Innovation Demonstration Platform (Chuancaijiao [2022] No. 106).

摘要/Abstract

摘要： Introducing methane at the anode side of a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) has been proven to effectively suppress the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), thereby enabling hydrogen production at significantly lower voltages. In this work, a double perovskite oxide, Sr₂Fe_1.4Pt_0.1Mo_0.5O_6-δ (abbreviated as Pt-SFM), was successfully synthesized by a liquid-phase method and employed as both an electronic conductor and a catalyst for methane oxidation at the SOEC anode. Following high-temperature treatment under a reducing atmosphere, platinum (Pt) nanoparticles were exsolved from the perovskite lattice and uniformly dispersed on the oxide surface. These exsolved Pt nanoparticles act as highly active sites for methane adsorption and oxidation. Electrochemical performance tests were conducted at 1123.15 K, and the results demonstrated that the Pt-SFM cell treated for 20 h (Pt-SFM 20 h) achieved a current density of 0.85 A·cm^-2 at an applied voltage of 1.40 V. This performance corresponds to a 102.4% enhancement compared to the undoped SFM 20 h cell. The superior performance is attributed to the presence of exsolved Pt, which significantly improves the catalyst's ability to adsorb and dissociate methane molecules. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis under open-circuit conditions revealed that the polarization impedance of the Pt-SFM 20 h cell was 1.25 Ω·cm², which is 49.2% lower than that of the SFM 20 h cell. Furthermore, a 45-h long-term stability test showed that the Pt-SFM 20 h cell maintained a stable performance, with a low voltage degradation rate of only 0.67 mV·h^-1.

关键词: Methane, Hydrogen production, Perovskite, Catalyst, Electrolysis

Abstract: Introducing methane at the anode side of a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) has been proven to effectively suppress the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), thereby enabling hydrogen production at significantly lower voltages. In this work, a double perovskite oxide, Sr₂Fe_1.4Pt_0.1Mo_0.5O_6-δ (abbreviated as Pt-SFM), was successfully synthesized by a liquid-phase method and employed as both an electronic conductor and a catalyst for methane oxidation at the SOEC anode. Following high-temperature treatment under a reducing atmosphere, platinum (Pt) nanoparticles were exsolved from the perovskite lattice and uniformly dispersed on the oxide surface. These exsolved Pt nanoparticles act as highly active sites for methane adsorption and oxidation. Electrochemical performance tests were conducted at 1123.15 K, and the results demonstrated that the Pt-SFM cell treated for 20 h (Pt-SFM 20 h) achieved a current density of 0.85 A·cm^-2 at an applied voltage of 1.40 V. This performance corresponds to a 102.4% enhancement compared to the undoped SFM 20 h cell. The superior performance is attributed to the presence of exsolved Pt, which significantly improves the catalyst's ability to adsorb and dissociate methane molecules. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis under open-circuit conditions revealed that the polarization impedance of the Pt-SFM 20 h cell was 1.25 Ω·cm², which is 49.2% lower than that of the SFM 20 h cell. Furthermore, a 45-h long-term stability test showed that the Pt-SFM 20 h cell maintained a stable performance, with a low voltage degradation rate of only 0.67 mV·h^-1.

Key words: Methane, Hydrogen production, Perovskite, Catalyst, Electrolysis

Liming Zhou, Kejing Wu, Qiang Hu, Houfang Lu, Bin Liang. Preparation of anodic catalysts via in situ exsolution of Pt nanoparticles for a methane oxidation enhanced SOEC process[J]. 中国化学工程学报, 2025, 86(10): 13-24.

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Preparation of anodic catalysts via in situ exsolution of Pt nanoparticles for a methane oxidation enhanced SOEC process

Preparation of anodic catalysts via in situ exsolution of Pt nanoparticles for a methane oxidation enhanced SOEC process

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