Copper ferrite and cobalt oxide two-layer coated macroporous SiC substrate for efficient CO2-splitting and thermochemical energy conversion

Bachirou Guene Lougou; Boxi Geng; Boshu Jiang; Hao Zhang; Qiming Sun; Yong Shuai; Zhibin Qu; Jiupeng Zhao; Chi-Hwa Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.07.057

Copper ferrite and cobalt oxide two-layer coated macroporous SiC substrate for efficient CO₂-splitting and thermochemical energy conversion

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Dec:627:516-531. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.07.057. Epub 2022 Jul 15.

Authors

Bachirou Guene Lougou¹, Boxi Geng², Boshu Jiang², Hao Zhang², Qiming Sun³, Yong Shuai⁴, Zhibin Qu², Jiupeng Zhao⁵, Chi-Hwa Wang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China; MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineer8ing, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
² School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
³ Innovation Center for Chemical Sciences, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117585, Singapore.
⁴ School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China. Electronic address: shuaiyong@hit.edu.cn.
⁵ MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineer8ing, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117585, Singapore. Electronic address: chewch@nus.edu.sg.

PMID: 35870404
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.07.057

Abstract

CO₂-splitting and thermochemical energy conversion effectiveness are still challenged by the selectivity of metal/metal oxide-based redox materials and associated chemical reaction constraints. This study proposed an interface/substrate engineering approach for improving CO₂-splitting and thermochemical energy conversion through CuFe₂O₄ and Co₃O₄ two-layer coating SiC. The newly prepared material reactive surface area available for gas-solid reactions is characterized by micro-pores CuFe₂O₄ alloy easing inter-layer oxygen micro mass exchanges across a highly stable SiC-Co₃O₄ layer. Through a thermogravimetry analysis, oxidation of the thermally activated oxygen carriers exhibited remarkably CO₂-splitting capacities with a total CO yield of 1919.33 µmol/g at 1300 °C. The further analysis of the material CO₂-splitting performance at the reactor scale resulted in 919.04 mL (788.94 µmol/g) of CO yield with an instantaneous CO production rate of 22.52 mL/min and chemical energy density of 223.37 kJ/kg at 1000 °C isothermal redox cycles. The reaction kinetic behavior indicated activation energy of 30.65 kJ/mol, which suggested faster CO₂ activation and oxidation kinetic on SiC-Co₃O₄-CuFe₂O₄ O-deficit surfaces. The underlying mechanism for the remarkable thermochemical performances was analyzed by combining experiment and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The significance of exploiting the synergy between CuFe₂O₄ and Co₃O₄ layers and stoichiometric reaction characteristics provided fundamental insights useful for the theoretical modeling and practical application of the solar thermochemical process.

Keywords: CO(2)-splitting; Chemical energy; Gas-solid reaction; Redox thermodynamics and kinetics; Solar fuel.