en گروه سرامیک Ceramic Materials and Engineering Research Paper Research Paper In this paper the chemical interaction between catalyst and support has been studied to understand the observed different growth rate of CNTs in our previous paper. Both pure MgO and Mg(NO₃)₂ . 6H₂O as sources of the MgO catalyst support and Fe₂(SO₄)₃ · xH₂O as the source of the Fe catalyst, were employed. A Fe catalyst supported on MgO has been synthesized using the wet impregnation method followed by calcination. To compare the catalyst grain size and its distribution, the sample were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and BET specific surface area (SSA) measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XPS technique have utilized complementary to demonstrate the existence of chemical interaction between MgO support and Fe catalyst. Results revealed that the type of precursor used to prepare the support has a significant influence on the morphology of the support and the associated distribution of the Fe catalysts. The highest yield of MgFe₂O₄ phase was obtained using a pure MgO precursor which after calcination results in a homogenous distribution of nano-sized Fe particles over the support surface Catalyst, Support, Magnesium ferrite 1 9 http://ijmse.iust.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1976-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M. Palizdar palizdar@cpg-gmbh.de 1800319475328460010258 1800319475328460010258 Yes R&D and Training Department, CPG Industrial, Mining and Technical Services, Germany Z. Aslam 1800319475328460010259 1800319475328460010259 No Institute for Materials Research, Leeds University, U.K. R. Aghababazadeh 1800319475328460010260 1800319475328460010260 No dvanced Materials and Nanotechnology Department, Materials and Energy Research Center, Iran A. Mirhabibi 1800319475328460010261 1800319475328460010261 No 4Centre of Excellence for Advanced Materials and Processing (CEAMP), Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran/2Institute for Materials Research, Leeds University, U.K P. Sangpour 1800319475328460010262 1800319475328460010262 No Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology Department, Materials and Energy Research Center, Iran Z. Abadi 1800319475328460010263 1800319475328460010263 No dvanced Materials and Nanotechnology Department, Materials and Energy Research Center, Iran Y. Palizdar 1800319475328460010264 1800319475328460010264 No Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology Department, Materials and Energy Research Center, Iran R. Brydson 1800319475328460010265 1800319475328460010265 No 2Institute for Materials Research, Leeds University, U.K