Decomposition of methane over Ni catalysts supported on carbon fibers formed from different hydrocarbons Original Research Article

In order to get pure hydrogen without CO and CO2, the decomposition of methane into hydrogen and carbon fibers (CF) over Ni/carbon catalysts has been investigated. The reason for the use of carbon materials as supports is to avoid a costly elimination treatment of the catalyst from the formed CF. The Ni/carbon catalysts prepared by the impregnation of various carbon materials with Ni(NO3)2 dissolved in acetone, followed by reduction in hydrogen at 573 K, showed better catalytic performance in the decomposition of methane than those prepared by the impregnation with aqueous Ni(NO3)2. The Ni(40 wt%)/CF(from 1-C4H8) showed the highest catalytic performance giving a C/Ni value (moles of deposited carbon per mole of Ni on the catalyst) of 1920 until complete deactivation of the catalyst. SEM and TEM images of the CF formed from methane indicated their thickness to be ≈10–150 nm with the same size of Ni particles at their tips at the early stage of the decomposition of methane, but the thickness changed to ≈40–100 nm at the final stage of decomposition. An estimate of the average size of Ni crystallites from XRD measurement suggested that the carbons deposited from methane on various Ni/CF would modify the size of Ni crystallites during the reaction. It is suggested that ≈20 nm Ni crystallites are most active for the growth of carbon nanofibers.