Nearly 40 years ago, solid oxide electrochemical cells began to evolve from supplying energy into versatile chemical reactors. Since then, breakthroughs in cell design and demonstrations of efficient value-added chemical reactions led to the exploration of how, for example, interface engineering enables more efficient and sustainable valorization reactions at reduced temperatures.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Smart, W. H. & Weissbart, J. Study of Electrolytic Dissociation of CO2-H2O Using a Solid Oxide Electrolyte (NASA, 1967); https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19670007847.
Vayenas, C. G., Bebelis, S. & Neophytides, S. Non-Faradaic electrochemical modification of catalytic activity. J. Phys. Chem. 92, 5083–5085 (1988).
Duan, C., Huang, J., Sullivan, N. & O’Hayre, R. Proton-conducting oxides for energy conversion and storage. Appl. Phys. Rev. 7, 011314 (2020).
Yang, L. et al. Enhanced sulfur and coking tolerance of a mixed ion conductor for SOFCs: BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.2–xYbxO3–δ. Science 326, 126–129 (2009).
Duan, C. et al. Highly durable, coking and sulfur tolerant, fuel-flexible protonic ceramic fuel cells. Nature 557, 217–222 (2018).
Morejudo, S. H. et al. Direct conversion of methane to aromatics in a catalytic co-ionic membrane reactor. Science 353, 563–566 (2016).
Zhu, C. et al. Electrochemical conversion of methane to ethylene in a solid oxide electrolyzer. Nat. Commun. 10, 1173 (2019).
Zhang, X., Ye, L., Li, H., Chen, F. & Xie, K. Electrochemical dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene in a solid oxide electrolyzer. ACS Catal. 10, 3505–3513 (2020).
Lv, H. et al. Super-dry reforming of methane using a tandem electro-thermocatalytic system. Nat. Chem. 17, 695–702 (2025).
He, F. et al. A new Pd doped proton conducting perovskite oxide with multiple functionalities for efficient and stable power generation from ammonia at reduced temperatures. Adv. Energy Mater. 11, 2003916 (2021).
Acknowledgements
S.J.S. and M.-C.K. acknowledge funding from the institutional research programme of Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (no. KK2612-10) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (no. RS-2024-00467226).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shin, S.J., Kim, MC. Diversifying chemical reactions in solid oxide electrochemical cells. Nat Rev Chem (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-026-00830-x
Published:
Version of record:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-026-00830-x
