Copper aided exchange in high performance oxygen production by CuCo binary oxides for clean energy delivery

Abstract

Here we show the high oxygen production conferred by binary CuCo oxides. A feature of this material is the robustness to temperature cycling under the exposure of dry and wet air. Higher cobalt content favoured oxygen sorption, though at longer temperature swing cycles of 250 °C between oxidation and reduction processes. A more desirable outcome was achieved with a high cobalt content in the presence of copper (Co_0.8Cu_0.2O_x) as the temperature cycle was almost halved to 125 °C, thus leading to faster cycles of oxygen uptake and release, and higher oxygen production rates ∼5.0 wt%. The fast uptake was attributed to the reduction of cobalt(III) to cobalt(II) oxide whilst copper oxide enhanced the exchange of oxygen in cobalt oxide. The robustness of the binary CoCu oxides paves the pathway for oxygen production for the new generation of oxyfuel coal power plants.