Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Kuala Lumpur
1.0 Introduction
The rapid increase of anthropogenic carbon dioxide nowadays has become a major concern
since it contributes towards global warming. Many efforts have been made in order to
mitigate the increase of carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere from all point and non-
point sources. One of the best initiatives that can reduce this greenhouse gas is by converting
CO2 into nano-particles. Scientifically, nano-particles can be described as very tiny objects
where the sizes are between 100 and 2500 nanometers for the fine particles; ultrafine particles
are of sizes between 1 and 100 nanometers. These nano-particles have numerous applications
especially in the semi-conductor and electrical industries, and are known for their great
lightweight properties.
There are many ways that can be done for the synthesization of nanoparticles. However, the
only method that will be used for this research study is by the chemical vapour deposition
(CVD) method. The CVD method has been approved as the most promising method to
produce high quality of nano-materials at relatively low cost. The other advantage of using
this method is because of its high product yield. This method involves by putting the gas-
phase, carbon-rich source flowing in the presence of a metal catalyst at elevated operating
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temperature in the range between 550 and 1000°C, towards decomposing the gaseous carbon
molecules, and subsequently converted into carbon nano-particles. This particular method
also can be conducted by using different types of chemical reactors with different carbon
precursors.
For the characterization of nano-particles, there are three common microscopes that are used
Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Field Emission Electron
Microscopy (FESEM). These microscopes have the same principles with the light
microscope; the only difference between them is that electrons are used instead of light in
As for this project, the experiment will be conducted either by using a fixed bed reactor with
quartz wool or autoclave (this is however, subject to approval to procure), both iron and
cobalt (and possibly nickel) will be used for the catalyst preparation and the carbon sources
are carbon dioxide and methane. The reason carbon dioxide has been chosen as the main
(i) To develop different carbon free catalyst for CO2 / CH4 reactions.
(ii) To convert CO2 into useful nanoparticles using other developed catalysts and coal/
biomass as well.
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3.0 Methodology
a) Catalyst Preparation
b) Synthesis of nano-particles
Two different types of reactors (equipments) will be used to conduct the experiment:
a) Catalyst Preparation
iron (Fe) and cobalt (Co) as the metallic materials. Firstly, a certain amount of Fe and
Co (approximately 0.5g) are dissolved in the distilled water and ammonia is added
pressure). The mixture is then left for 2 hours. Next, filtration will take place by
washing the mixture with distilled water. The solids from the filter are dried at high
temperature (110oC) for 12 hours and calcined at 450oC for 3 hours in air.
b) Production of nano-particles
The catalyst that has been prepared will be inserted directly into the preheated
1500cm3/min respectively are then flown into the furnace. The temperature of
the sample is heated at different heating rates from room temperature to 800oC
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(i.e 30, 50, 80, 100, 200,300… 800oC/min). After 45 minutes, the sample is
For the purification process, the products are added with nitric acid (HNO3)
for 2 hours at room temperature. The products are filtered and washed with
Approximately 8g of dry ice with catalyst that had been prepared previously is
added into the autoclave. Similar to the fixed bed reactor, the sample is
room temperature to 450oC (i.e. 50, 100, 200, 250…450oC/min). The main
of reaction time from the reaction between CO2 and Fe/Co. Next, the reaction
products are removed by nitric acid (HNO3) or hydrochloric acid (HCl). The
As for both the fixed bed reactor and autoclave, the experiment is repeated by
stability of the nano-particles, similar experiments are performed but now with
relatively high temperatures while the heating rate and flow rates of the gases are kept
constant. Different gas flows are also conducted by injecting methane (CH4) gas into
the reactor to compare the quality of the production of nano-particles. The reaction of
CO2 with CH4 is done with mole ratio of 1:1. The experiment is conducted using
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coal/biomass as well. During the experiment, the weight change of the samples, time
and temperature are also recorded simultaneously for all the experiments.
The samples will be analysed for BET surface areas as well as SEM, TEM or FESEM
analyses. The morphology and microstructures (i.e. shapes, sizes, and elemental
distributions) of the nano-particles produced are studied so that the best quality and
can be determined. For the reaction of CO2/CH4, the kinetics are calculated so as to
compare the results and the best way to produce nano-particles is selected.
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4.0 Project Schedule
Semester I
Jul 2010 Aug 2010 Sep 2010 Oct 2010 Nov 2010 Dec 2010
ID Task Name Start Finish Duration
18/7 25/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9 26/9 3/10 10/10 17/10 24/10 31/10 7/11 14/11 21/11 28/11 5/12 12/12 19/12
Semester II
Dec 2010 Jan 2011 Feb 2011 Mar 2011 Apr 2011 May 2011
ID Task Name Start Finish Duration
5/12 12/12 19/12 26/12 2/1 9/1 16/1 23/1 30/1 6/2 13/2 20/2 27/2 6/3 13/3 20/3 27/3 3/4 10/4 17/4 24/4 1/5 8/5 15/5 22/5
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