Decomposition of nickel carbonyl

J. A. E. BeU and G. Hansen, "Properties of Nickel-Coated Carbon and Kevlar Fibers Produced by the Decomposition of Nickel Carbonyl," the 23rddntemational SAMPE Technical Conference, Anaheim, Calif, Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, Covina, Calif., Oct. 1991. 

Traditionally, pure CO is not used industrially water gas or producer gas are used instead. However, pure CO is made by thermal decomposition of nickel carbonyl ... 

Mond process The purification of nickel by the formation and decomposition of nickel carbonyl, monomer A small molecule from which a polymer is formed. Examples CH2=CH2 for polyethylene NH2(CH2)6NH2 for nylon, monoprotic acid A Bronsted acid with one acidic hydrogen atom. Example CH COOI I. monosaccharide An individual unit from which carbohydrates are considered to be composed. Example C6H(206, glucose, multiple bond A double or triple bond between two atoms. 

The most commonly used reaction is the decomposition of nickel carbonyl ... 

One step in the industrial refining of nickel is the decomposition of nickel carbonyl (Ni(CO)4) into nickel and carbon monoxide. In a laboratory reaction, 25.0 g nickel carbonyl yielded 5.34 g nickel. 

Although the hydrogenation of hydrogen cyanide to methylamine was achieved as early as 1863 (Debus, 1), the history of modern catalytic hydrogenation began in 1897 with the discovery by Paul Sabatier and R. Senderens of the vapor phase hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds over a nickel catalyst (Sabatier and Senderens, 2). Sabatier has said that his interest in the action of nickel was provoked by the newly discovered Mond process for the purification of nickel by the formation and decomposition of nickel carbonyl. The capacity of nickel... 

Recently, a nickel zeolite hydrogenation catalyst has been prepared by a novel route (94) involving the adsorption and decomposition of nickel carbonyl onto NaX, which would not be expected to result in the formation of acid sites. In general, the platinum metal-containing zeolites are more active than those containing other transition metals. For example, in zeolite Y the following activity series has been found,... 

Various active nickel catalysts obtained not via reduction of nickel oxide with hydrogen have been described in the literature. Among these are the catalysts obtained by the decomposition of nickel carbonyl 10 by thermal decomposition of nickel formate or oxalate 11 by treating Ni-Si alloy or, more commonly, Ni-Al alloy with caustic alkali (or with heated water or steam) (Raney Ni) 12 by reducing nickel salts with a more electropositive metal,13 particularly by zinc dust followed by activation with an alkali or acid (Urushibara Ni) 14-16 and by reducing nickel salts with sodium boro-hydride (Ni boride catalyst)17-19 or other reducing agents.20-24... 

Under the guidance of Ostwald s assistant, Max Bodenstein, he began as his doctor s thesis an investigation of the reaction kinetics and of the catalytic aspects involved in the formation and decomposition of nickel carbonyl. As he often mentioned in his later life, this first intimate contact with the fascinating and, in many respects, mysterious field of catalysis, left a deep impression on Mittasch. 

Ever since Parkyns (60) prepared nickel particles on oxide (A1203, Si02) surfaces by decomposition of nickel carbonyl, metal cluster compounds (alkoxides, carbonyls, organometallics, etc.) have been used increasingly for the production of laboratory metal catalysts (Table I), and several reviews have appeared on this subject (6l-65a,b). 

INCO have developed [57] a method of coating carbon fiber with Ni using an adaptation of the carbonyl process, involving the thermal decomposition of nickel carbonyl gas ... 

Bell and Hansen [271] determined the properties of Ni coated carbon and Kevlar fibers produced by decomposition of nickel carbonyl. 

Bell JAE, Hansen G, Properties of nickel eoated carbon and Kevlar fibres produced by decomposition of nickel carbonyl. Proceedings of 23" International SAMPE Technical Conference, New York, 1183-1193, Oct 22-24, 1991. 

The Arrhenius activation energy for this rate-determining dissociation is 13 kcal/mole (in toluene solution). This value agrees well with the activation energy of the thermal and photochemical decomposition of nickel carbonyl in which the above dissociation (Eq. 16) is also rate determining (33,34,35). 

An alternative method is the decomposition of vapours of volatile metal compounds on the base metal surface, e.g., tungsten is coated by the decomposition of its hexachloride and nickel by decomposition of nickel carbonyl. 

Sabatier was first attracted to the use of nickel as a catalyst when he saw details of the newly introduced Mond process, in which nickel metal was purified by the formation and decomposition of nickel carbonyl. The fact that nickel combined with gaseous carbon monoxide suggested thM other unsatuiated molecules might react in a similar way. Sabatier later described the methanation... 

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