Co-production of hydrogen and carbon nanofibers from catalytic decomposition of methane over LaNi(1-x)Mx O3-α perovskite (where M = Co, Fe and X=0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1)

In this work, LaNi(1-x)MxO3-alpha (where M = Co, Pe and X = 0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1) perovskite have been successfully used as catalyst precursors for catalytic decomposition of methane (CDM). LaNi0.8Fe0.2O3-alpha and LaNi0.8Co0.2O3-alpha, perovsldte exhibited better catalytic performance in terms of hydrogen and carbon nanofibers yields during CDM reaction as compared to LaNiO3 perovskite, which can be attributed to the formation of the smaller and more uniform catalyst particles. Moreover, the reduced LaNi(1-x)MxO3-alpha perovsldte also produces filamentous carbons with chain like structure which is different from the filamentous carbons with tube like structure produced from the reduced LaNiO3 and LaNi(1-x)CoxO3-alpha, perovskite. This is due to the different growth mechanisms of those filamentous carbons over the different catalysts. More particularly, chain-like structure filamentous carbons were produced through pulse-growth mechanism over the reduced LaNi(1-x)FexO3-alpha perovsldte, whereas tube like structure filamentous carbons were produced through smooth growth mechanism over the reduced LaNiO3 and LaNi(1-x)CoxO3-alpha, perovskite. Copyright 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.