Thermochemical CO2 splitting performance of perovskite coated porous ceramics

In this paper, we investigate the redox performance of perovskite coated porous ceramics with various architectures. For this purpose, reticulated porous ceramics (RPCs) in three different pore sizes (5, 12, 75 ppi) were fabricated to represent a broad range of structures and pore sizes. The perovskite material is based on lanthanum manganite and was synthesized and doped with Ca and Al through the Pechini method. Using a deep coating method, the surface of RPC substrates was modified by a thin-film coating with a thickness of ∼15 μm. We evaluated the CO2 conversion performance of the developed materials in a gold-image IR furnace. X-ray micro-computed tomography along with SEM/EDX were utilized in different steps of the work for a thorough study of the bulk and surface features. Results reveal that the intermediate pore size of 12 ppi delivers the maximum perovskite loading with a high degree of coating homogeneity and connectivity while CO2 conversion tests showed the highest CO yield for 75 ppi. Our results show that the extreme conditions inside the furnace combined with the flow of gaseous phases cause the RPCs to shrink in length up to 23% resulting in the alteration of the pore phase and elimination of small pores reducing the total specific surface area. Further our results reveal an important mechanism resulting in the inhibition of CO2 conversion where the perovskite coating layer migrates into the matrix of the RPC frame.