Effect of pH, Acid and Thermal Treatment Conditions on Co/CNT Catalyst Performance in Fischer–Tropsch Reaction
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Abstract
Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) supported cobalt oxide was prepared as a catalyst by strong electrostatic adsorption (SEA) method. The CNT support was initially acid- and thermal-treated in order to functionalize the support to uptake more Co clusters. The Co/CNT were characterized by a range of analytical methods including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), temperature programmed reduction with hydrogen (H2-TPR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), Zeta sizer particle size analysis and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis. TEM images showed cobalt particles were highly dispersed and impregnated at both exterior and interior walls of the CNT support with a narrow particle size distribution of 6-8 nm. In addition, the performance of the synthesized Co/CNT catalyst was tested using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction which was carried out in a fixed-bed micro-reactor. H2-TPR profiles indicated the lower reduction temperature of 420 °C was required for the FTS reaction. The study revealed that cobalt is an effective metal for Co/CNT catalysts at pH 14 and at 900 °C calcination temperature. Furthermore, FTS reaction results showed that CO conversion and C5+ selectivity were recorded at 58.7% and 83.2% respectively, which were higher than those obtained using a Co/CNT catalyst which pre-treated at a lower thermal treatment temperature and pH. © 2019 by the authors.
Keywords
carbon nanotubes, thermal treatment, cobalt, Fischer–Tropsch, catalyst, acid treatment
Publication Title
Symmetry
Divisions
CHEMISTRY,nanotechnology
Funders
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, University of Malaya, Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (RU011-2017 Grant),Ministry of Education of Malaysia under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme FRGS/1/2012/SG01/UTP/02/01
Volume
11
Issue
1
Publisher
MDPI