A series of lanthanum containing Ni-base catalysts were prepared by citric acid complex method.Carbon nanotubes (CNT) were synthesized bY catalytic decomposing CH4 over these catalysts and characterized by XRD, TEM and TGA.It is found that the addition of lanthanum can not increase the yield of carbon nanotube, but can make the diameter of carbon nanotube thinner and even.The more the lanthanum addsr, the thinner the diameter of CNTs becomes.With the CNTs prepared on Ni-Mg catalyst, the CNTs prepared on Ni-La-Mg catalyst has better crystallinity and thermal stability.
The synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) from methane decomposition by Ni-La-Al (Ni/La/Al = 10: 1:9) and Ni-Al (Ni/A1 = 1:1 ) catalysts at 1023 K was studied.Catalysts were prepared by a co-precipitation method.During the methane decomposition, a part of gases at the exit of the reactor was analyzed by gas chromatography.The experimental results show that doping La into Ni-A1 catalyst improves the catalytic lifetime and the yields of CNTs in the methane decomposition.Some characteristics of CNTs were investigated by TEM and XRD.The analyses show that CNTs deposited on the Ni-La-A1 catalyst have obvious thinner walls, less bend structures and better graphitization than the sample grown over Ni-Al.These results indicate that the introduction of lanthanum into the nickel-aluminum catalyst leads to significant changes in the morphology and microstructures of the CNTs.
