Fibrous carbon material formation from hydrocarbons using metal catalysts
AssigneeThe University of British Columbia
InventorsDavid Chester UPHAM, Genpei CAI, Karsten FEIGL, Natascha MIEDERHOFF, Stephan POPP, Sawyer D’ENTREMONT
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Abstract
Methods of pyrolyzing hydrocarbon are disclosed. The method is performed in the presence of a metal catalyst to produce a solid carbon product and hydrogen gas. A metal catalyst may be selected to preferentially produce carbon fibers and/or carbon nanotubes over other carbon products. In some embodiments, the metal catalyst comprises a metal catalyst containing indium (In).
Claims20
A method of producing fibrous carbon materials, comprising:
- contacting a gaseous hydrocarbon feed with a metal catalyst containing indium within a vessel to produce the fibrous carbon materials on a surface of the metal catalyst, wherein the fibrous carbon materials comprise a tubular structure with an average diameter less than an average length thereof;
- and
- collecting the fibrous carbon materials.
A method of producing fibrous carbon materials, comprising:
- contacting a gaseous hydrocarbon feed with a metal catalyst containing indium within a vessel for a first time interval to produce a first carbon product on a surface of the metal catalyst;
- continuously contacting the hydrocarbon feed with the metal catalyst for a second time interval to produce a plurality of molten metal droplets on a surface of the first carbon product;
- and
- further continuously contacting the hydrocarbon feed with the metal catalyst for a third time interval to produce the fibrous carbon materials from the plurality of molten metal droplets.
A method of producing fibrous carbon materials, comprising:
- depositing a metal catalyst containing indium in a vessel;
- maintaining the vessel at a temperature to produce a plurality of molten metal droplets;
- and
- contacting a gaseous hydrocarbon feed with the plurality of molten metal droplets for a time interval to produce the fibrous carbon materials from the plurality of molten metal droplets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.