Rare Earth-Promoted Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles as Catalysts for N2O Direct Decomposition

Bahaa Abu-Zied,Salem Bawaked,Samia Kosa,Wilhelm Schwieger

doi:10.3390/catal6050070

Bahaa Abu-Zied, Salem Bawaked + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/catal6050070

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Abstract

For this paper, a series of rare earth (Gd, La, Sm) promoted NiO catalysts were prepared by using the microwave-assisted precipitation method and tested for N2O direct decomposition. The obtained solids have been characterized by using various techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed that the incorporation of RE oxides into NiO significantly decreases its crystallite size. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations indicated that the addition of RE oxides swells the NiO particles yielding particles into a rice-like morphology. N2 adsorption studies showed a sharp surface area increase as well as mesoporosity development accompanied the RE incorporation. It was found that the RE oxides significantly enhance the NiO activity.

Highlights

Due to the underestimation and lack of awareness of the potential contribution of N2 O to environmental problems, it suffered for several decades from a lack of interest from scientists and politicians
The thermogram of the bare NiC2 O4 ̈2H2 O (Figure 1a) reveals a weight loss of about 1% accompanying the sample heating to 100 ̋ C, which could be correlated with the removal of adsorbed water
Further increasing the heating temperature to 700 ̋ C is accompanied by further weight loss

Summary

Introduction

Due to the underestimation and lack of awareness of the potential contribution of N2 O to environmental problems, it suffered for several decades from a lack of interest from scientists and politicians. In the mid-1990s, N2 O was identified as a relatively strong greenhouse gas, a contributor to the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere. The estimated contribution of N2 O to global warming is about. Due to its long lifespan (~150 years), N2 O has 21 and 310 times the global warming potential (GWP) of CH4 and CO2 , respectively [3,4]. The identified N2 O anthropogenic sources include agricultural as well as industrial processes. N2 O is produced, in many cases, as a by-product in three-way catalysis (TWC) during the removal of NOx , CO, and hydrocarbons [2,3]

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