Engineering the Interface and Interaction Structure on Highly Coke-Resistant Ni/CeO2-Al2O3 Catalyst for Dry Reforming of Methane

Designing and tailoring metal-support interaction in Ni-based catalysts with plentiful interfacial sites is of significant interest for achieving a targeted catalytic performance in dry reforming of methane (DRM), but remains as a challenging task. In this work, Ni/Al2O3 and Ni/CeO2-Al2O3 catalysts with the same strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) but distinct interface structure are developed by an improved evaporation-induced self-assembly method using pseudobohemite gel as aluminum source. Ni/CeO2-Al2O3 exhibits superior catalytic activity and stability in DRM in comparison with Ni/Al2O3. The highest CH4 and CO2 conversion reaches at 71.4% and 82.1% for Ni/CeO2-Al2O3, which are higher than that of 64.3% and 75.6% for Ni/Al2O3 at 700 degrees C. The SMSI effect in Ni/CeO2-Al2O3 provides more active interfacial sites with less coke deposition, and promotes the generation of active formate species which are the key intermediates for DRM. The findings of the present work could possibly pave the way for fabricating catalysts with SMSI strategy for efficient heterogeneous catalysis.