Tailoring an Fe–Ov–Ce–Triggered Phase-Reversible Oxygen Carrier for Intensified Chemical Looping CO2 Splitting

Advanced oxygen carrier plays a pivotal role in various chemical looping processes, such as CO 2 splitting. However, oxygen carriers have been restricted by deactivation and inferior oxygen transferability at low temperatures. Herein, we design an Fe–O v –Ce–triggered phase-reversible CeO 2− x ·Fe·CaO ↔ CeO 2 ·Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 oxygen carrier with strong electron-donating ability, which activates CO 2 at low temperatures and promotes oxygen transformation. Results reveal that the maximum CO 2 conversion and CO yield obtained with 50 mol% CeO 2− x ·Fe·CaO are, respectively, 426% and 53.6 times higher than those of Fe·CaO at 700°C. This unique multiphase material also retains exceptional redox durability, with no obvious deactivation after 100 splitting cycles. The addition of Ce promotes the formation of the Fe–O v –Ce structure, which acts as an activator, triggers CO 2 splitting, and lowers the energy barrier of C═O dissociation. The metallic Fe plays a role in consuming O 2− lattice transformed from Fe–O v –Ce, whereas CaO acts as a structure promoter that enables phase-reversible Fe 0 ↔ Fe 3+ looping.