Decomposition of methane on Zr–Ni alloys

Decomposition of methane on Zr7Ni10, ZrNi, Zr2Ni, Zr4Ni and Zr was investigated in the temperature range 573–823 K. The alloy of Zr4Ni efficiently removed methane by over 99% in 105 s at 673 K. The pressure reduction of methane approximately obeyed the first order kinetics for all samples. The activation energy of the decomposition rate was determined to be 49 kJ mol−1. The specific decomposition rate increased with the zirconium content for the four alloys, while that of Zr is smaller than that of Zr4Ni. The decomposition rate also depended on the surface conditions.