Production of bimetallic carbides by mechanical alloying for catalysis

Transition metal carbides have attracted attention as catalysts for hydrogenation, isomerization and hydrotreating reactions. The present work investigates the conditions for the synthesis of bimetallic iron molybdenum carbide using Mechanical Alloying, as a stage of a wider project that also includes producing carbides by the Temperature Programmed Carburization method. The materials were characterized by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Results revealed that an amorphous or nanocrystalline structure resulted for the employed conditions (ball-to-powder ratio and milling time), thus suggesting that this material can be very promising for hydrogenation reactions ifa sufficiently high final powder surface area is achieved.