(20c) Combustion Synthesis of La-Based Perovskite Nanoparticles for Solar Thermochemical Conversion of CO2

Direct production of syngas via thermolysis of H₂O and CO₂ is possible, however it needs a very high temperature and chances of forming a gaseous explosive mixture of H₂ and O₂ is also very high. Utilization of solar driven metal oxide based thermochemical H₂O and CO₂ splitting cycle reduces the requirement of higher temperatures and avoids the formation of explosive gas mixture. Various non-volatile redox materials have been investigated towards the thermochemical production of solar fuel via H₂O and CO₂ splitting reactions. In addition to the ferrite and ceria based materials, recently the researchers are focused towards perovskite based redox materials as an active catalyst for the solar splitting process. In particular, La-based perovskites are of particular interest as they are capable of producing higher amounts of O₂ and H₂/CO at lower operating temperatures as compared to ceria and ferrites. In this study, La-based perovskite nanoparticles were synthesized using combustion method and tested towards multiple CO₂ splitting cycles. Thermogravimetric analyzer was used to perform the thermochemical CO₂ splitting reactions. It is very important to note that in most of the previous investigations the maximum number of cycles performed in case of La-based perovskite are 3 to 4. Hence, this study has a uniqueness that it tested the La-based perovskites in more than 10 thermochemical cycles.