Sol-gel-generated La2NiO4 for CH4/CO2 reforming

A stable La2NiO4 catalyst active in CH4/CO2 reforming has been prepared by a sol gel method. The catalyst was characterized by techniques such as XRD, BET, TPR and TG/DTG. The results show that the conversions of CH4 and CO2 in CH4/CO2 reforming over this catalyst are significantly higher than those over a Ni/La2O3 catalyst prepared by wet impregnation and those over a La2NiO4/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst. The TG/DTG outcome confirmed that the amount of carbon deposition observed in the former case was less than that observed in the latter two cases, a phenomenon attributable to the uniform dispersion of nanoscale Ni particles in the sol gel-generated La2NiO4 catalyst.