A 200 W CO2 laser-based heating system coupled with in operando Raman spectroscopy has been developed. The system delivers highly concentrated radiation capable of driving thermochemical reactions and simulates heat fluxes expected by 3D solar concentrating systems. 10 mol% Gd-doped and pure ceria pellets were prepared and used to characterize the system because of their well-established thermodynamic and kinetic properties, as well as their strong Raman peak due to F2 g symmetrical mode at 460 cm−1. Reduction in an H2 atmosphere has been carried out to investigate the behavior of the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the F2 g Raman peak resulting from changes in temperature and oxidation state. For both samples, an increase in temperature during heating in air (i.e., fully oxidized) resulted in a peak shift toward low wavenumber and an increase of FWHM. The FWHM versus temperature curves were then measured for controlled reduction extents ranging between sample averaged nonstoichiometries of δ = 0–0.209 as a function of temperature. At a fixed temperature, Gd-doped ceria exhibited an increase in FWHM with increasing reduction extent until δ = 0.056. At greater reduction extents, the FWHM decreased with increasing reduction extents. We attribute this to changes in the lattice parameter caused by the eventual formation of intermediate cubic Ce2O3 at the radiated surface. This study demonstrates the promise of utilizing Raman spectroscopy to probe thermochemical reactions in operando. Going forward, we expect that this will be an especially promising tool for characterizing emerging thermochemical materials with complex phase equilibria, especially for nonequilibrium processes.

Synthesis of solar thermochemical H₂ (STCH) production redox materials with engineered structures, for example replica foams, can enable efficient heat and mass transport and are critical for scaled-up systems. Prior work has motivated the use of LSM-type perovskites as foamed STCH materials, but the effect of their morphology on bulk and kinetic behavior has not been reported. In this work, replica and direct foamed samples of L_a0.65Sr_0.35MnO_3-δ (LSM35) were fabricated and compared to synthesized powders and dense monoliths, and similarly synthesized CeO_2-δ (ceria) foams, regarding their specific reaction rates and bulk oxygen capacity/H₂ yields. Changes in oxygen capacity (Δδ) and reaction rates were measured between 1200 °C −1400 °C by using fixed ratios of steam and hydrogen during both reduction and oxidation steps, allowing for analysis under practical high conversion conditions. Results suggest bulk behavior and reaction rates of the foamed LSM materials are comparable to their powder analogues. Differences in reaction rates were observed only when replica foamed samples were subjected to rapid laser heating (emulating conditions expected in solar furnaces), which is expected but has not been demonstrated at such a small scale. Foamed samples were further subjected to 50 redox cycles at 1400 °C to evaluate their stability. Results show no statistically significant decrease in hydrogen production for any of the foamed samples, but the direct foamed samples became brittle with time. Together, these results demonstrate the viability of replica foamed LSM perovskites for integration in scaled up STCH systems.