eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Energy Research 2328-7330 2015-12-19 3 2 25 31 10.12691/ajer-3-2-2 AJER2015322 article Vinod S. Amar 1 Xavier M. Pasala 1 Jan A. Puszynski 1 Rajesh V. Shende Rajesh.Shende@sdsmt.edu 1 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA 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). http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajer/3/2/2/ajer-3-2-2.pdf thermochemical water-splitting powdered mixtures thermal stabilization ultrasonication sol-gel