Precursor engineering of hydrotalcite-derived redox sorbents for reversible and stable thermochemical oxygen storage
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Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Chemical looping processes based on multiple-step reduction and oxidation of metal oxides
hold great promise for a variety of energy applications, such as CO2 capture and conversion, gas
separation, energy storage, and redox catalytic processes. Copper-based mixed oxides are one of the
most promising candidate materials with a high oxygen storage capacity. However, the structural
deterioration and sintering at high temperatures is one key scientific challenge. Herein, we report a
precursor engineering approach to prepare durable copper-based redox sorbents for use in
thermochemical looping processes for combustion and gas purification. Calcination of the CuMgAl
hydrotalcite precursors formed mixed metal oxides consisting of CuO nanoparticles dispersed in the MgAl oxide support which inhibits the formation of copper aluminates during redox cycling. The copperbased redox sorbents demonstrated enhanced reaction rates, stable O2 storage capacity over 500 redox
cycles at 900 °C, and efficient gas purification over a broad temperature range. We expect that our
materials design strategy has broad implications on synthesis and engineering of mixed metal oxides for
a range of thermochemical processes and redox catalytic applications.
hold great promise for a variety of energy applications, such as CO2 capture and conversion, gas
separation, energy storage, and redox catalytic processes. Copper-based mixed oxides are one of the
most promising candidate materials with a high oxygen storage capacity. However, the structural
deterioration and sintering at high temperatures is one key scientific challenge. Herein, we report a
precursor engineering approach to prepare durable copper-based redox sorbents for use in
thermochemical looping processes for combustion and gas purification. Calcination of the CuMgAl
hydrotalcite precursors formed mixed metal oxides consisting of CuO nanoparticles dispersed in the MgAl oxide support which inhibits the formation of copper aluminates during redox cycling. The copperbased redox sorbents demonstrated enhanced reaction rates, stable O2 storage capacity over 500 redox
cycles at 900 °C, and efficient gas purification over a broad temperature range. We expect that our
materials design strategy has broad implications on synthesis and engineering of mixed metal oxides for
a range of thermochemical processes and redox catalytic applications.
Date Acceptance
2022-08-01
Citation
Nature Communications, 13
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Research
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
13
Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if
changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless
indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended
use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted
use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright
holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/.
© The Author(s) 2022
Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if
changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless
indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended
use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted
use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright
holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/.
© The Author(s) 2022
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32593-6
Grant Number
Bth Ref: RC-CE1204
RG/150258
Publication Status
Published