In this study, a series of novel nickel catalysts supported on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (Ni/rGO) with Ni loadings of 10, 15 and 20 wt% were successfully synthesized via the incipient wetness impregnation method. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts and rGO support were thoroughly characterized by thermogravimetric analyser, X-ray diffraction, fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, N2 adsorption-desorption, temperature programmed reduction, temperature programmed CO2 desorption and field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The properties of the catalysts are correlated to its catalytic activity for CO2 methanation which were investigated using three-phase slurry reactor at low temperature and pressure of 240 °C and 10 bar, respectively. Among the three catalysts of different Ni loading, Ni15/rGO shows the highest activity of 51% conversion of CO2 with total selectivity towards CH4. N2-physisorption and CO2-TPD analysis suggest that high catalytic performance of Ni15/rGO is attributed to the high surface area, strong basic sites and special support effect of rGO in anchoring the active metal.
Abstract. Zinc oxide (ZnO) has found many important applications such as optoelectronic devices, sensors and varistors. The challenging part however is synthesizing ZnO nanoparticles and its utilisation as EM detectors. Sol-gel and self-combustion techniques were chosen in this study due to the ability to produce single phase and nano-size samples. The starting mixture consists of 10 grams of zinc (II) nitrate, Zn(NO 3 ) 2. 6H 2 O salt which was dissolved in 50 mL of nitric acid, HNO 3. The solution was stirred at 250 rpm continuously for 1 day. The mixture was then gradually heated for every 15 minutes until it combusted at 110 C for 1 hour for each technique. Characterizations were performed by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman Spectra and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).The XRD analysis showed a major peak of [101] plane at 2Ө for the self-combustion technique and the sol-gel technique. Raman results for the samples prepared via sol-gel and self-combustion techniques had shown the major peak of ZnO that is located at the Raman shifts of 437.67 cm -1 . Using the Scherrer equation, single crystal nano particle of ZnO was successfully obtained in the range of 38.49 nm to 50.70 nm for the sample prepared via the sol gel technique. By the self-combustion technique, the average dimension of the as-prepared sample is in the range of 34-49 nm. Further heat treatment resulted in a major change of the Raman shift corresponding to the single phase ZnO nano particles. The best samples were used as electromagnetic (EM) detectors. The EM detectors are polymer based composite which were prepared using a casting technique.
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