Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SC3-P002
SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF Mn-Ce MIXED OXIDE
FOR HYDROGEN PRODUCTION BY A SOLAR ASSISTED
THERMOCHEMICAL CYCLE
Kenya Mora 1 , Manuel Román Aguirre 2 , David Chavez Flores 1 , Víctor Hugo Ramos Sanchez 1
1 Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Mexico. 2 Centro de
Investigación en Materiales Avanzados, S.C., Departamento de Ingeniería y Química de
Materiales, Mexico.
A Thermochemical cycle is a set of chemical reactions coupled so the water
molecule decomposes into hydrogen and oxygen, whereas the rest of the
reactants in the cycle are preserved. These processes exhibit potential for
hydrogen production exploiting solar thermal energy directly. Thus far, high
temperature solar chemical reactors with a single cavity have been used and
suggested for such application. Among the major challenges to achieve large
scale production by this solar approach are stability, reactivity and accessibility
of the reactants at the focal point within the solar reactor. In this work, we
synthesized Ce-Mn mixed oxides by two different routes: under microwave
radiation, and by a sol-gel method. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the
occurrence of mixed oxides in both synthetic routes, with representative bands
ca. 465 cm -1 , which were assigned to the CeO2; and another peak around 600-
605 cm -1 attributed to the incorporation of manganese oxide within the CeO2
lattice. By means of X-ray fluorescence results, we estimated an atomic ratio of
Ce-Mn, 1:1. Moreover X-ray photoelectron spectra revealed corresponding to
Ce +4 and Mn +4 . Therefore, at this stage, this study proposes two effective
synthetic routes to obtain nanoparticles and aerogels of Ce-Mn mixed oxides,
which will be verified by both Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy.
Ultimately, after physicochemical characterization, these materials could be
potentially tested within a solar reactor in the presence of water vapor to
produce solar hydrogen.
Keywords: Solar Hydrogen, Thermochemical Cycle, Mixed Oxides
Presenting authors email: a271956@uach.mx