Sonochemical Synthesis of Silica-Supported Iron Oxide Nanostructures and Their Application as Catalysts in Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis

The emphasis on climate change requires processes to be more efficient minimize CO2 emissions, and nanostructured materials as catalysts could play a crucial role due their high surface area per unit volume. Herein, we report the synthesis of silica microspheres (450–600 nm) using modified Stober process, which iron oxide clusters were deposited by sonolysis pentacarbonyl yield material (Si-Fe). A suite spectroscopic techniques was used characterize synthesized materials. BET freshly prepared 8.00 m2/g, Si-Fe 24.0 m2/g. Iron is commercially Fischer–Tropsch (F–T) catalyst its low cost. However, attrition causes loss lower product quality. In this study, evaluated for F–T address these challenges. For comparison, two commercial materials, UCI (silica-supported micron-sized oxide) BASF (unsupported nanosized oxide), also evaluated. All three first activated pretreatment with either CO or gas (a mixture H2) 24 h, then quick screening in batch mode Parr reactor at temperatures: 493 K, 513 533 K. data K showed that CO-pretreated demonstrated (<0.5%), CH4 higher (>58%) C8–C20 selectivity (mol% C) hydrocarbons, surpassing both reference catalysts. temperature dependence Si-Fe: 17.4%, 58.3%, 54.9% respectively, hydrocarbon maximized increased 27.9 m2/g CO-reduced after reaction morphology structural catalysts, before runs, imaged. Of all evaluated, SEM–EDS analysis least carbon deposition CO-treated minimized CO2, greenhouse gas. This pave way selecting nanomaterials effectively operate temperatures produce negligible minimizing water-gas-shift (WGS) activity.