High throughput discovery of families of high activity WGS catalysts: part I--history and methodology.

State-of-art water gas shift catalysts (FeCr for high temperature shift and CuZn for low temperature shift) are not active enough to be used in fuel processors for the production of hydrogen from hydrocarbon fuels for fuel cells. The need for drastically lower catalyst volumes has triggered a search for novel WGS catalysts that are an order of magnitude more active than current systems. Novel catalytic materials for the high, medium and low temperature water gas shift reactions have been discovered by application of combinatorial methodologies.

Low-temperature single-wall carbon nanotubes synthesis: feedstock decomposition limited growth.

We report on the lowest temperature of SWCNT growth using endothermic decomposition of CH4 gas on a specially activated alumina-supported Fe:Mo catalyst. However, the observed lowest growth temperature (560 degrees C) is higher than that reported previously for exothermic feedstock type. Our observation indicates that the decomposition threshold temperature of the feedstock limits the SWCNT growth.