Sustainable solar fuel production by a mixed metal oxide based thermochemical H2O/CO2 splitting cycle

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis of Ba-ferrite via sol-gel method for the production of solar fuel such as H2 or syngas via thermochemical H2O and/or CO2 splitting cycle. Sol-gel synthesis of Ba-ferrite nanoparticles includes dissolution of metal precursors in ethanol, addition of propylene oxide as a proton scavenger to achieve gel formation, aging of the gel, gel drying, and subsequent calcination in presence of air. The effect of addition of propylene oxide (PO) as a proton scavenger on physico-chemical properties of sol-gel derived Ba-ferrite was investigated in detail. Various characterization techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area analyzer (BET), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were utilized in this study.