Theoretical and experimental study of iron catalyst preparation by chemical vapor deposition of ferrocene in air

•A chemical vapor deposition of ferrocene in air is studied in a small scale reactor.•A 3D CFD model was coupled with transport and kinetics of species.•The kinetics parameters were determined at temperature range between 733 and 873 K.•Good agreement between model predictions and experimental data is observed.•We report the most efficient iron oxide nanoparticles deposition at 793 K.

A 3D mathematical model for chemical vapor deposition of ferrocene on silica substrates in a horizontal small scale reactor was developed and validated by experiments. The model includes a computational fluid dynamics combined with transport equations for ferrocene and iron oxide nanoparticles. The temperature dependence of the mass flux of iron oxide on the catalytic support was predicted and measured in the range between 733 K and 873 K. Bulk and surface reactions of ferrocene decomposition in air were considered, and kinetic parameters were defined based on experimental data. It has been shown that the deposition of iron oxide on the substrate surface is limited by the transport of ferrocene vapors to the silica substrates and the surface reaction rate. The most efficient iron oxide deposition on the substrate surface was achieved at 793 K. At higher temperatures, the surface deposition process is less efficient due to more intensive bulk reaction and formation of nanoparticles.

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