Back to Search
Start Over
Scalable Synthesis of Oxygen Vacancy-Rich Unsupported Iron Oxide for Efficient Thermocatalytic Conversion of Methane to Hydrogen and Carbon Nanomaterials.
- Source :
-
Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) [Nanomaterials (Basel)] 2023 Aug 31; Vol. 13 (17). Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Aug 31. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Thermocatalytic methane decomposition (TCMD) involving metal oxides is a more environmentally friendly and cost-effective strategy for scalable hydrogen fuel production compared to traditional methane steam reforming (MSR), as it requires less energy and produces fewer CO/CO <subscript>2</subscript> emissions. However, the unsupported metal oxide catalysts (such as α-Fe <subscript>2</subscript> O <subscript>3</subscript> ) that would be suited for this purpose exhibit poor performance in TCMD. To overcome this issue, a novel strategy was developed as a part of this work, whereby oxygen vacancies (OVs) were introduced into unsupported α-Fe <subscript>2</subscript> O <subscript>3</subscript> nanoparticles (NPs). Systematic characterization of the obtained materials through analytical techniques demonstrated that mesoporous nanostructured unsupported α-Fe <subscript>2</subscript> O <subscript>3</subscript> with abundant oxygen vacancies (OV-rich α-Fe <subscript>2</subscript> O <subscript>3</subscript> NPs) could be obtained by direct thermal decomposition of ferric nitrate at different calcination temperatures (500, 700, 900, and 1100 °C) under ambient conditions. The thermocatalytic activity of the resulting OV-rich α-Fe <subscript>2</subscript> O <subscript>3</subscript> NPs was assessed by evaluating the methane conversion, hydrogen formation rate, and amount of carbon deposited. The TCMD results revealed that 900 °C was the most optimal calcination temperature, as it led to the highest methane conversion (22.5%) and hydrogen formation rate (47.0 × 10 <superscript>-5</superscript> mol H <subscript>2</subscript> g <superscript>-1</superscript> min <superscript>-1</superscript> ) after 480 min. This outstanding thermocatalytic performance of OV-rich α-Fe <subscript>2</subscript> O <subscript>3</subscript> NPs is attributed to the presence of abundant OVs on their surfaces, thus providing effective active sites for methane decomposition. Moreover, the proposed strategy can be cost-effectively scaled up for industrial applications, whereby unsupported metal oxide NPs can be employed for energy-efficient thermocatalytic CH <subscript>4</subscript> decomposition into hydrogen fuel and carbon nanomaterials.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2079-4991
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 17
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 37686970
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13172461