STABILITY ENHANCEMENT OF NANO-NiO CATALYST WITH SiO2 SUPPORT TO GET IMPROVED HYDROGEN YIELD FROM METHANE DECOMPOSITION

Building of the nanoparticle form their precursors by bottom-up method is a very fascinating practice in nanotechnology. Most promising two bottom-up methods are experimentally unveiled in this research contribution; i) controlled precipitation of Ni nanoparticles and their reinforcement with silicate by modified Stöber method and ii) chemical vapor deposition of nano-carbon from methane over silicate supported nano-Ni catalyst. We found that the silicate addition results in the formation of single crystal NiO nanoparticles which exhibited catalytic activity enhancing features, such as low particle size and high surface area and porosity. The single-point surface area was increased from 62.22 m2/g to 91.50 m2/g for n-Ni O nanoparticles, after silicate incorporation. Preliminary catalytic activity was also analyzed in a fixed-bed pilot plant. N-NiO/SiO2 nanoparticles generated 57.28% hydrogen at 730 °C. Isothermal methane decomposition was conducted at 625 °C to examine the stability of catalyst.