STABILITY ENHANCEMENT OF NANO-NiO CATALYST WITH SiO2 SUPPORT TO GET IMPROVED HYDROGEN YIELD FROM METHANE DECOMPOSITION

Abstract

The building of the nanoparticle from their precursors by the bottom-up method is a very fascinating practice in nanotechnology. Most promising two bottom-up methods are experimentally unveiled in this research contribution; i) controlled precipitation of Ni nanoparticles and their reinforcement with silicate by the modified Stober method and ii) chemical vapor deposition of nano-carbon from methane over silicate supported nano-Ni catalyst. We found that the silicate addition results in the formation of single crystal NiO nanoparticles which exhibited catalytic activity-enhancing features, such as low particle size and high surface area and porosity. The single-point surface area was increased from 62.22 m2/g to 91.50 m2/g for n-Ni O nanoparticles, after silicate incorporation. Preliminary catalytic activity was also analyzed in a fixed-bed pilot plant. N-NiO/SiO2 nanoparticles generated 57.28% hydrogen at 730 °C. Isothermal methane decomposition was conducted at 625 °C to examine the stability of the catalyst. Article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20319/mijst.2016.21.4252 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.