POLARIS Instrument Development Rapid Access Proposal: Developing in-situ methods to study Equilibrium-Busting Chemical Looping reactors

We have recently reported the first thermodynamically reversible chemical reactor – the memory reactor – which allows one to perform reversible chemical reactions beyond the normal limits imposed by chemical equilibrium. In one application the reactor can produce pure streams of H2 from the water gas shift reaction. The reactor performance relies on a gradual change in oxygen content of an oxygen carrier material (OCM), for which we use a non-stoichiometric perovskite whose composition can vary between ABO3 and ABO2.75 as the reactor operates. We request time on POLARIS to develop flow cell apparatus which will allow structural studies on a functioning reactor allowing us to understand and optimise materials under real operating conditions. Instrumental and sample cell development time using previously characterised samples is necessary to inform the design of future experiments.