Sonication Derived Powdered Mixtures of Ferrite and Ceramic Nanoparticles for H 2 Generation

Abstract

This paper reports sonication derived powdered mixtures of NiFe2O4 and ceramic nanoparticles such as ZrO2/Y2O3/YSZ for H2 generation from thermochemical water-splitting process. To prepare powdered mixtures, NiFe2O4 (75 wt%) and ceramic nanoparticles (25 wt%) were placed in ethanol, sonicated for 120 min, and the slurry obtained was dried at 50°-100°C. Using these powdered mixtures, ten consecutive thermochemical cycles were performed at 900°-1100°C for H2 generation. Among different powdered mixtures, NiFe2O4/ZrO2 produced a maximum H2 of 30.6 mL/g/cycle at NTP conditions. Powdered mixtures prepared with different sonication times (30-120 min) and ZrO2 nanoparticles loadings (10-35 wt%) were also investigated for H2 generation via thermochemical water-splitting process. Sonication derived NiFe2O4/ZrO2 powdered mixture prepared at optimized conditions has produced average H2 volume of 38.8 mL/g/cycle during five consecutive thermochemical cycles, which was found to be higher than the H2 volume generated by NiFe2O4/Y2O3 and NiFe2O4/YSZ powdered mixtures. In addition, these powdered mixtures were characterized for powdered x-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM).