CO2 reforming with methane reaction over Ni@SiO2 catalysts coupled by size effect and metal-support interaction

CO2 reforming with methane is an attractive reaction to produce syngas and reduce greenhouse gases. The main problems for the reaction are catalyst sintering and carbon deposition at high temperatures. In this study, we fabricated core-shell structured Ni@SiO2 catalysts with ultrafine nickel nanoparticles by microemulsion method. The catalysts were calcined at different temperatures to obtain different sizes of Ni nanoparticles and achieve different strengths of metal-support interaction. CO2 reforming with methane reaction over the Ni@SiO2 catalysts revealed that catalytic performance was dependent on both size of Ni nanoparticles and strength of metal-support interaction. The best coupling of size effect and metal-support interaction in the Ni@SiO2-600 exhibited the highest performance and stability, which was assigned to the maintained smallest size of Ni nanoparticles and the lowest carbon deposition when compared with Ni@SiO2-500 and Ni@SiO2-700 catalysts.