Nassar, NashaatMarei, Nedal Nael2016-05-052016-05-0520162016http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2974The effect of NiO nanoparticle size was studied to understand its impact on adsorption and catalytic activity during oil recovery and upgrading. A series of different-sized NiO nanoparticles between 5 and 80 nm were prepared. XRD, BET, FTIR, HRTEM and TGA were used to characterize the nanosize effect on the textural properties, shape and morphology. Quinolin-65 (Q-65) was first used as an asphaltene model molecule. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms models and computational modeling for the interaction between NiO nanoparticle surface and Q-65 were carried out to understand the adsorption behavior. TGA/DTA and TGA-MS techniques were used to study the effect of NiO nanosizes on catalytic thermo-oxidative decomposition of the adsorbed Q-65. The entire study was repeated using visbroken residue n-C5 asphaltenes. For both Q-65 and n-C5 asphaltene post-adsorption oxidation, the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) kinetic method was used to estimate the kinetic triplets, namely f (α), Eα and Aα.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Chemistry--InorganicChemistry--OrganicChemistry--PhysicalPhysics--AtomicPhysics--MolecularPhysics--TheoryEngineering--ChemicalEngineering--EnvironmentalNanotechnologyNanosizeAdsorptionAsphalteneCatalystNiONanosorbcatsmaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/27682