Influence of the fuel in the nanostructure catalyzer oxides synthesis

Among the techniques used in catalysts production, the solution combustion synthesis (SCS) has been increasingly applied due the possibility of producing, at low cost, highly pure and homogeneous nanostructured powders. The smaller the particle diameter, the greater the activity of the catalyst. In SCS, the size of the particles produced depends on the process variables. In order to formulate the optimal methodology for the preparation of nanostructured oxides for catalysis, it was studied the fuel-oxidant concentration ratio, and the use of glycine and polyethylene glycol with molecular weight 200 (PEG 200) as fuel in the SCS of Iron, Magnesium and Molybdenum based catalysts. The phase identification of the products was performed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). Particle size and surface area analysis were done to characterize the particles size and the samples morphology was obtained by scanning electron microscopy. Results indicated the formation of high purity nanomaterials obtained for low concentrations of fuel, and a wide variation in the nanostructure sizes depending on the concentration and type of fuel used.