Unpredicted porosity improvement upon thermal reactivation of a fouled multi-walled carbon nanotube
Valeriya Zarubina (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)
Juan J. Mercadal (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
Harrie Jansma (TU Delft - ChemE/O&O groep)
Ignacio Melián-Cabrera (Universidad de la Laguna, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
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Abstract
Deposition of carbonaceous species on a solid catalyst́s surface during a catalysed processes is quite usual. This causes fouling, or depletion of the textural features, with a performance decay. In this work, preliminary results for an ex situ thermal oxidative reactivation of a fouled MWCNT are presented. The coke is nearly completely removed and, as a side effect, some of the MWCNT is combusted. Remarkably, the textural features are improved; 23 % higher BET area and 29 % higher total pore volume, while maintaining the isotherm shape. These improvements are attributed to two factors. Firstly, the removal during reactivation of non-porous (or less-porous) carbon domains present in the starting MWCNT, that positively influences the porosity in various ways; a control experiment employing the fresh MWCNT strongly suggests this hypothesis. Secondly, the new microporosity also contributes to the better BET.