Reducing carbon deposition and enhancing reaction stability by ceria for methane dry reforming over Ni@SiO2@CeO2 catalyst

Low temperature methane dry reforming by Ni-based catalysts is an economic way to convert greenhouse gases of CH4 and CO2, but carbon deposition is a great challenge. Taking the advantage of mobile oxygen on CeO2, we synthesized a Ni@SiO2@CeO2 catalyst by coating ceria on surface of Ni@SiO2 to reduce carbon deposition. H2 temperature-programmed reduction, X-ray photoelectron spectra and oxygen temperature-programmed desorption demonstrated the high oxygen mobility from ceria in Ni@SiO2@CeO2 catalyst, which significantly reduced carbon deposition and enhanced stability of methane dry reforming reaction. Experimental results revealed that methane dry reforming performance was one and a half times higher, but carbon deposition was one half lower, over the Ni@SiO2@CeO2 catalyst than over the Ni@SiO2 catalyst. The strategy of ceria coating in reducing carbon deposition and enhancing reaction stability could also be applied to other heterogeneous reactions suffering carbon deposition.

Automated summary

The study demonstrated that methane dry reforming on the Ni@SiO2@CeO2 catalyst exhibits higher performance and lower carbon deposition, attributed to the high oxygen mobility of ceria. The strategy of ceria coating can reduce carbon deposition and enhance reaction stability.