| Catalysts increase the rate of reaction without changing itself and helps lowering the activation energy of the reaction. The idea of instilling the catalysis concept in the chemical processes had a revolutionary impact on the industry. This research project focuses on synthesizing a metal supported catalyst, Ni nanoparticles on TiO2 and a combination of Ni-Sn metals on TiO2, which is abundantly used in the industry, particularly tri-reforming process. Every single catalyst has its own set of synthesis methods. There are several methods prescribed to synthesize this catalyst, but reverse micelles technique was utilized for its unique property of yielding very controllable particle sizes. In this work, different types of Ni/TiO 2 and NiSn/TiO2 catalysts were synthesized and characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (SEM-EDAX). EDAX results confirmed the presence of Ni nanoparticles on TiO2 close enough to the desired values of 1%, 5% and 7% Ni by weight and the ratios of Ni to Sn concentration. The sponge-like structure of the nanoparticles was seen through SEM images. XRD traced the presence of Nickel on Ni/TiO2 catalyst surfaces and the diffraction patterns at 2? angles of 44°, 51° and 76° (approximately) were assigned as the respective (111), (200) and (202) planes of Ni metal. Three combinations of NiSn/TiO2 catalysts; Ni3Sn/TiO 2, NiSn3/TiO2 and NiSn/TiO 2, were studied. Future work include implementing more characterization techniques to confirm and understand the catalyst details in depth and compare the properties of these catalysts by performing reactions. |
