Postojanje ugljeničnih nanocevi (UNC), kao jedne od brojnih alotropskih modifikacija ugljenika, zabeleženo je još pre više od pola veka. Međutim, do prave eksplozijeinteresovanja za ovu vrstu nanomaterijala je došlo tek 1991. godine kada ih je "ponovo" otkrio japanski naučnik S. Iijima. Od tada, zbog svojih izuzetnih fizičko-hemijskih osobina, UNC počinju da privlače pažnju naučne javnosti i spajaju istraživače iz različitih oblasti sa zajedničkim imeniteljem - nanotehnologija. Otkriće UNC je u znatnoj meri omogućilo razvoj visoke tehnologije u oblastima kao što su elektronika, optika, kompozitni materijali, kataliza, zaštita životne sredine, itd. Danas, primena nanocevi sve više doprinosi lakšoj implementaciji principa održivog razvoja u pomenute oblasti. Kataliza je polje od dvostrukog interesa, jer je jedan od načina dobijanja UNC upravo katalitički, a osim toga i same cevi su interesantne kao nosač novog katalizatora.Istraživanje čiji su rezultati prikazani u okviru ove doktorske disertacije je obuhvatilo više oblasti proučavanja UNC, počevši od razvoja metode za njihovu sintezu, preko prečišćavanja i funkcionalizacije finalnog proizvoda, pa do primene nanocevi u dva procesa od značaja za oblast zaštite životne sredine.Razvoj katalitičke metode sinteze UNC započet je primenom vertikalnog cevnog kvarcnog reaktora, iz CO i CH4 kao izvora ugljenika, pri čemu su u reakciji testiranimonometalni katalizatori na bazi Fe, Co i Ni na Al2O3 kao nosaču (I serija katalizatora). Rezultati ovih preliminarnih eksperimenata su pokazali malu aktivnost I serije monometalnih katalizatora, što se može pripisati, kako neadekvatnoj hidrodinamici reaktora i loše odabranim reakcionim parametrima, tako i neodgovarajućoj veličini katalitičkih čestica i načina njihovog pakovanja u vertikalnomreaktoru. Shodno tome, u cilju postizanja boljeg prinosa nanocevi, dalji eksperimenti sinteze izvedeni su u horizontalnom reaktoru u struji C2H4 i u prisustvu II serijemonometalnih katalizatora sa Al2O3 i SiO2 kao nosačima, koji se u odnosu na I seriju razlikuju po udelu aktivne faze i veličini čestica katalizatora (praškast oblik). Katalizatori II serije su pokazali zadovoljavajuću aktivnost u reakciji sinteze UNC, a rezultati karakterizacije dobijenih uzoraka nanocevi ukazuju na različit uticaj nosača katalizatora na morfologiju sintetisanih nanocevi. Shodno ostvarenom prinosu ugljenika, a u cilju optimizacije reakcionih parametara, katalizator na bazi Fe sa SiO2 kao nosačem je odabran kao reprezentativan za ispitivanje uticaja vremena trajanja sinteze UNC, kao i zapreminskog udela C2H4 u smeši sa azotom, na prinosnanocevi i selektivnost procesa. Optimizacija reakcionih uslova je u daljoj fazi rada dovela do uvođenja bimetalnih katalizatora sa istim tradicionalnim nosačima – Al2O3 i SiO2. Najveći prinos ugljenika ostvaren je na katalizatorima sa Fe i Co kao aktivnom fazom, bez obzira na vrstu nosača. UNC sintetisane na pomenutim katalizatorima su karakterisane u ciljuispitivanja uticaja primenjenih nosača na njihove fizičkohemijske osobine, pa je shodno tome i predložen vršni mehanizam njihovog rasta. Rezultati ispitivanja kvaliteta sintetisanih UNC su ukazali da primena SiO2, kao nosača katalizatora, za razliku od Al2O3, favorizuje rast UNC boljeg površinskog i ukupnog kvaliteta. S obzirom na raznolikost mogućnosti primene UNC, istraživanja u tom smeru zahtevaju čiste UNC, pa su shodno tome proizvodi sinteze prečišćeni metodom tečne oksidacije. Rezultati fizičko-hemijske karakterizacije prečišćenih UNC su ukazali na efikasnost primenjene metode sa aspekta uklanjanja prisutnog katalizatora, ali i na njen različit uticaj na strukturu, odnosno kvalitet prečišćenih uzoraka. Kao posledica promena unutar strukture UNC, kao i različitog stepena njihove funkcionalizacije, ukupni kvalitet prečišćenih nanocevi je, u zavisnosti od primenjenog nosača katalizatora, promenjen u odnosu na odgovarajuće neprečišćene uzorke.Poslednjih godina se posebna pažnja poklanja nanomaterijalima koji se mogu primeniti za uklanjanje različitih polutanata iz životne sredine, kako u funkciji adsorbenata, tako i u funkciji katalizatora. U okviru ove doktorske disertacije obuhvaćena je primena UNC kao adsorbenta za uklanjanje insekticida tiametoksama iz vode, kao i njihova primena kao nosača katalizatora u reakcijidenitracije vode. Rezultati eksperimenata adsorpcije su pokazali da UNC, prethodno tretirane u ccHNO3, predstavljaju dobar adsorbent za uklanjanje insekticida tiametoksama iz vodenog rastvora. Odabir procesnih parametara za proučavanje kinetike adsorpcije, adsorpcione ravnoteže, kao i termodinamike procesa izvršen je primenom frakcionog faktorskog dizajna na dva nivoa, 5 1 V 2 , a dobijeni rezultati su ukazali da je pomenuti proces adsorpcije spontan i kontrolisan uglavnom unutrašnjom difuzijom molekula insekticida u mezopore uzorka UNC. Performanse katalizatora sa UNC kao nosačem su testirane u reakciji katalitičke denitracije, pri čemu su dobijeni rezultati pokazali da se novoformirani katalizator karakteriše zadovoljavajućom disperznošću sa udelombimetalnih Pd-Cu nanočestica koje omogućavaju 60% konverzije nitratnog jona., The existance of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as one of the carbon allotropes, was noted over half century ago. However, the true interest for these nanomaterials appeared at 1991, when they were "redescovered" by Japanese scientist S. Iijima. Since then, due to their unique physico-chemical properties, CNTs begin to attract attention of the scientific community and to gather researchers from different areas within the common field of interest – nanotechnology. The CNTs discovery substantially enabled the high technology development in the fields such as electronics, optics, composite materials, catalysis, environmental protection, etc. Nowdays, the application of nanotubes is increasingly contributing to easier implementation of sustainable development principles in the above mentioned areas. Catalysis is the field of double interest – one of the CNTs synthesis method is catalytical, and the nanotubes can also be used as the support of the new catalyst.The research, which results are shown within this PhD Thesis, includes few different CNTs research fields, starting from the synthesis method development, over the purification and functionalization of the final product, to the application ofnanotubes in two processes of significance for the field of environmental protection.The development of the CNTs catalytic synthesis method was started by the use of vertical quartz tube reactor, in the flow of CO and CH4 as the carbon source, and in the presence of monometallic catalysts based on Fe, Co and Ni at Al2O3 as the support (the first series of catalysts). The results of these preliminary experiments have shown the low activity of these monometallic catalysts, which can be attributed to the inadequate reactor hydrodynamics and selected reaction parameters, as well as the inadequate size of the catalytic particles and the type of their packing in the vertical reactor. Consequently, in order to achieve the higher nanotubes yield, further synthesis experiments were carried out in a horizontal reactor in the flow of C2H4 as the carbon source, and in the presence of the second series of monometallic catalysts with Al2O3 and SiO2 as the supports. The catalysts of the second series have shown satisfactory activity in the CNTs synthesis reaction, and the results of the obtained samples characterization idicate a different influence of the catalyst support on the synthesized CNTs morphology. In order to optimize the reaction parameters, Fe/SiO2 catalyst was chosen as a representative to examine the effect of the CNTs synthesis duration, as well as the volume percentage of C2H4 in the mixture with nitrogen to the CNTs yield and process selectivity. In a further phase of work, the optimization of thereaction parameters led to the introduction of the bimetallic catalysts with the same traditional supports, Al2O3 and SiO2. The highest carbon yield was achieved over Fe, Co based catalysts, regardless of the type of the catalyst support. CNTs synthesized over the above mentioned catalysts were characterized in order to study the effect of the used supports on their physico-chemical properties, and consequently the CNTs tip growth mechanism was proposed. The results of quality examination of the synthesized CNTs showed that the use of SiO2, as a catalyst support, unlike Al2O3, favors the growth of nanotubes of better surface and overall crystalline quality. In view of the diversity of possible CNTs applications, investigation in that direction requires purified CNTs and accordingly the final CNTs products were purified by liquid oxidation method. The results of physico-chemical characterization of the purified CNTs showed that the applied purification method was effective in terms of removing the present catalyst, but on the other hand it had different influence on the structure and quality of the purified samples. As a consequence of CNTs structural changes, as well as their different degree of functionalization, the overall crystalline quality of the purified nanotubes, originating from different catalyst supports, was changed in comparison to the corresponding unpurified samples. Over the past few years, special attention was focused onnanomaterials that can be applied as adsorbents or catalysts for the removal of various pollutants from the environment. This PhD Thesis considers the use of CNTs, as adsorbent, for the removal of insecticide thiamethoxam from water, as well as their use as catalyst support for water denitration reaction. The results of adsorption experiments have shown that the CNTs, pretreated in ccHNO3, represent a good adsorbent for the removal of thiamethoxam from the aqueous solutions. Theselection of the process parameters in order to study the adsorption kinetics and equilibrium, as well as the thermodynamics of the process, was conducted using thefractional factorial design at two levels, 5 1 V 2 . The obtained results showed that the adsorption process is spontaneous and controlled mainly by an internal diffusion of molecules of insecticide in the mesopores of CNTs. The performance of the catalyst with the CNTs as the support were tested in catalytic water denitration reaction, whereby the results showed that the newly formed catalyst is characterized by satisfactory dispersion of Pd-Cu bimetallic nanoparticles which enable the 60% conversion of nitrate ions.