Catalytic Decomposition of Hydrocarbon Gas over Various Nanostructured Metal oxides for Hydrocarbon Removal and Production of Carbon Nanotubes

Nanosized CuO-CeO2, CuO-Fe2O3, CuO-CeO2-Al2O3 and CuO-Fe2O3-CeO2-Al2O3 were prepared by co-precipitation and wet impregnation techniques and were used for Catalytic decomposition of acetylene to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Weight gain technique was used to follow up the catalytic reactions. The results revealed that catalyst chemical composition, catalytic temperature, acetylene flow rate and catalyst’s weight have a significant effect on the acetylene conversion percent. It was found that maximum acetylene conversion percent occurs over CuO-CeO2-Fe2O3-Al2O3 and CuO-Fe2O3 and it increase by increasing, temperature from 400-600C, decreasing acetylene flow rate from 150-50 ml/min and increasing catalyst weight from 0.25-1g. With further increase in catalyst weight, acetylene conversion% decrease. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows that some of catalyst particles are observed at the tips of CNTs indicating that its formation proceeds by tip growth mechanism. ` The prepared samples and CNTs were characterized by X-ray diffraction, inductive coupled plasma – atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), surface area apparatus, Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and SEM.