Production and Characterization of Bi-metallic Fe-Co/CaCO3 Catalyst for Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

A catalyst was optimized using two by three 2^3 factorial design of experiment and wet impregnations method to determine the effect of production conditions (Drying temperature, drying time and mass of support) on Iron and Cobalt bimetallic catalyst (Fe & Co) catalyst supported on calcium carbonate (CaCO3) yield. The best yield of the catalyst after calcination was obtained to be 95.71 % at drying temperature, drying time and mass of support of 120 °C; 12 hours and 10 g respectively. The selected best yield of of the produced catalyst was characterized using SEM/EDS; TEM/EDS; XRD; DLS and TGA to determine its morphology, crystallinity and thermal, stability respectively. The characterization result showed that the catalyst produced is thermally stable with highest and minimum weight loss ranges between 31.72 % and 21.35 % at about 800 °C indicating that the catalyst will be suitable for the synthesis of CNTs