Sol-gel derived CeO₂-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization and solar thermochemical application

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• 作者：Rahul R. Bhosale^a ; ^{rahul.bhosale@qu.edu.qa" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; ^{solar.chemical.engineering@gmail.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Anand Kumar^a ; Fares AlMomani^a ; Ivo Alxneit^b
• 关键词：CeO2&ndash ; Fe2O3 ; Sol&ndash ; gel method ; Propylene oxide ; Material synthesis ; Solar thermal applications
• 刊名：Ceramics International
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：1 May 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：42
• 期：6
• 页码：6728-6737
• 全文大小：2604 K

文摘

Synthesis of CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles via propylene oxide (PO) aided sol–gel method for the production of solar fuels via thermochemical H₂O/CO₂ splitting cycles is reported in this paper. For the synthesis of CeO₂–Fe₂O₃, cerium nitrate hexahydrate and iron nitrate nonahydrate were first dissolved in ethanol and then PO was added to this mixture as a proton scavenger to achieve the gel formation. Synthesized CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ gel was aged, dried, and then calcined in air to achieve the desired phase composition. Influence of different synthesis parameters on physico-chemical properties of sol-gel derived CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ was explored in detail by using various analytical methods such as powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD), BET surface area analyzer (BET), x-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR–TEM). According to the findings, at all experimental conditions, phase/chemical composition of sol–gel derived CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ was observed to be unaltered. The SSA and pore volume was increased with the upsurge in the amount of PO used during sol–gel synthesis and decreased with the rise in the calcination temperature and dwell time. In contrast, the crystallite size was enlarged with the increase in the calcination temperature and dwell time. The nanoparticle morphology of the sol–gel derived CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ was verified with the help of SEM/TEM analysis. Thermochemical CO production ability of sol–gel derived CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ was investigated by performing thermogravimetric thermal reduction and CO₂ splitting experiments in the temperature range of 1000–1400 °C. Reported results indicate that the sol–gel derived CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ produced higher amounts of O₂ (69.134 μmol/g) and CO (124.013 μmol/g) as compared to previously investigated CeO₂ and CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ in multiple thermochemical cycles. It was also observed that the redox reactivity and thermal stability of sol–gel derived CeO₂–Fe₂O₃ remained unchanged as it produced constant amounts of O₂ and CO in eight successive thermochemical cycles.