Nature of Ni-Cu Alloys and Their Role in Chemical Reactions

Development of Ni–Cu–Mg–Al catalysts for the synthesis of carbon nanofibers by catalytic decomposition of methane

“…The small CuO particles could have more interaction with the other metals, particularly Ni, which can form Ni-Cu alloy after reduction. It is indeed known that Ni and Cu easily form alloys over a wide composition range [30,40]. The absence of a peak toward 770 K shows that CuAl 2 O 4 was not formed [41].…”

Modification of Ni state to promote the stability of Ni–Al2O3 catalyst in methane decomposition to produce hydrogen and carbon nanofibers

“…It has been suggested that the catalyst particles of 50Ni-25Cu-25Al may have been reconstructed and re-crystallized before growing carbon nanofibers in the induction period, which can efficiently prohibit Ni particles entering into quasi-liquid state in methane decomposition [20]. On the one hand, Cu, which is not active to adsorb methane, is generally enriched in the surface of Ni-Cu alloy and decreases the available number of Ni atoms to decompose methane [28]. On the other hand, the adsorption strength of methane on Ni atoms can be weakened because the electronlacking state of Ni is relieved owing to attracting electrons from the adjacent Cu atoms.…”

“…In a Ni-Cu alloy, electrons can transfer from Cu atoms to fill the d holes of the adjacent Ni atoms. Thus the electronic energy state of Ni atoms can be modified directly through this alloying effect [14,15,17,20,28]. Some research results have shown the incorporation of Cu can efficiently promote the stability of Ni at high temperatures [4,[9][10][11]14,15,[17][18][19][20].…”

“…After the formation of ZnAl 2 O 4 , the interaction between NiO and Al 2 O 3 can be modified. Cu atoms, which can form an alloy with Ni atoms in the whole range of the atomic ratio, are rich in electrons of the d orbits and are good electron donators [28]. In a Ni-Cu alloy, electrons can transfer from Cu atoms to fill the d holes of the adjacent Ni atoms.…”

Electrodeposition of NiCu-matrix nanocomposites using a rotating cylinder Hull cell

“…Some examples of electrodeposited composites containing an alloy matrix include a-Al 2 O 3 particles with a Cr-Ni alloy [7], a-Al 2 O 3 , and TiO 2 in NiCu [8] and our prior work with c-Al 2 O 3 in NiCu alloys [9,10]. The interest in NiCu alloy materials are well known for their corrosion resistance [2,[11][12][13][14][15], thermoelectrical [16,17], catalytic [18][19][20], and mechanical [8,21,22] properties. The electrodeposition of alumina particles in metal-matrix composites has also been widely studied [5,6] because alumina improves not only mechanical properties [4,23], but also thermal and mechanical stability at elevated temperatures [24].…”