Formation of carbon material on nickel catalyst during reaction with the vapour produced from the pyrolysis of sewage sludge

It is a research on the formation of carbon material on nickel catalyst during reactionwiththevapour produced from the pyrolysis of sewage sludge. The method used for carbon nanotube(CNT) production is the catalytic chemical vapour deposition (CCVD) method. Inthisresearch, the nickel catalyst act as the catalyst for carbon nanotube (CNT) production. Thecatalyst preparation also plays an important role in carbon nanotube growth rate. The nickel catalyst undergoes the incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) since the method is more faster, inexpensive, and the final property and configuration can be control in advance. The nickel catalyst were characterized by using Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) andFourierTransform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. The heating rate is one of the parameter for thepyrolysis of sewage sludge. Nevertheless, the heating rate have little impact onsludgepyrolysis reaction activation energy and correlative to reaction rate.(Wang Xiaohua&Jiancheng., 2012) Based on the recorded temperature of every 10 minutes during experiment, the heating rate of reactor can be determine by calculating the average heating rate (°C/min). From the nickel with distilled water, the heating rate obtained is 15.2°C/min which is higherthan heating rate for nickel with ethanol which is 14.9°C/min. The TGA analysis allows for amore accurate result of the deposited carbon.(Awadallah et al., 2012) Based on researchbyPinjari et al., all catalysts shows three mass changing steps which were vaporizationofphysically adsorbed moisture, surface oxidation of metallic nickel and degradationofgraphitized carbon. Based on the both nickel catalyst after CCVD, they showed aninitial weight loss tendency which may be attributed to the loss of physically adsorbed water bythecatalyst. The analysis on the nickel catalyst by using FTIR was also done to determinethefunctional group. But it cannot be determine since the carbon was not depositedonthecatalyst. All sample for before and after CCVD process shows slightly different peakvalue. Overall, there were three peaks in the catalyst which are 1738cm-1 , 1366cm-1 and 1217cm-1 .