Synthesis and Analysis of Cobalt Ferrite in YSZ for Use as Reactive Material in Solar Thermochemical Water and Carbon Dioxide Splitting

This paper reports the synthesis, characterization and evaluation of different weight loadings of cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) in 8 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) via the co-precipitation method. Prepared powders were calcined at 1350 °C for 36 hours and 1450 °C for 4 hours in air. These powders were then formed into a porous structure using sacrificial pore formation via oxidation of co-mixed graphite powder. These formed structures obtained were then characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), high temperature X-ray diffraction (HT-XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis was performed on the most promising of the structures before being subjected to 50 thermal reduction-CO₂ oxidation (redox) cycles using TGA. Together, these results indicate that CoFe₂O₄-8YSZ can provide a lower reduction temperature, maintain syngas production performance from cycle to cycle, and enhance utilization of the reactive material within the inert support in comparison to iron oxide only structures.