Carbon dioxide reforming of methane to syngas over ordered mesoporous Ni/KIT-6 catalysts

The ordered mesoporous Ni/KIT-6 (KIT-6, an ordered mesoporous SiO2) catalysts were prepared by impregnation method for carbon dioxide reforming of methane. The physicochemical properties of the prepared catalysts were characterized by H-2-TPR, XRD, BET, and TEM. The research results show that the specific surface area, pore diameter, crystal size of Ni species, and catalytic performance of the Ni/KIT-6 catalysts are obviously affected by the Ni content. Increasing Ni content results in the increment of the crystal size of Ni species, while the dispersion of Ni species shows the opposite trend. The specific surface area and pore size of the Ni/KIT-6 catalyst with the Ni loading of 3 wt% were 493.3 m(2) g(-1) and 6.22 nm, respectively. Besides, the Ni species are highly dispersed on the surface of KIT-6 support. Thereby, it exhibits the superior catalytic performance of carbon dioxide reforming of methane to syngas (CO and H-2). At atmospheric pressure, the CO2 and CH4 conversions for each catalyst following the order: NK3 approximate to NK4 > NK5 > NK2 > NK1 > bulk Ni. When the reaction temperature is 600 degrees C, the conversions of CH4 and CO2 of the NK3 catalyst are 65.1% and 37.0%, respectively. Meanwhile, it also shows excellent stability. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.