Vinod S. Amar¹, Xavier M. Pasala¹, Jan A. Puszynski¹, Rajesh V. Shende^1,

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).

thermochemical water-splitting, powdered mixtures, thermal stabilization, ultrasonication, sol-gel