P-doped activated carbons for methane thermocatalytic decomposition

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrate an efficient treatment with phytic acid of carbon-based catalysts (acetylene black) for the thermocatalytic decomposition (TCD) of methane. The performance of the materials highly relies on the amount and type of phospho-oxygenated groups formed during the treatment, and they are influenced by the prepolimerization process and the temperature of pyrolysis. The best performing sample synthesised shows an excellent initial activity higher than 90 %, in contrast to the performance of the un-doped material which exhibits a poor initial activity lower than 10 %. The higher performance of the doped materials could be ascribed to the release of COx species due to the thermal degradation of the oxygenated P-groups as the reaction proceeds, which creates new active sites on the catalysts surface for the reaction to take place. Our results demonstrate for the first time the utility of this novel procedure to enhance the performance of metal free catalysts for the TCD of methane based on the doping of the materials with phosphorus containing species.

Es la versión aceptada del documento, se puede consultar la versión final en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2026.153841