Enhanced porosity of Ni@Hollow meso-SiO2 catalyst for CO2 reforming of methane

Abstract The dry reforming of methane is a potential reaction that converts methane and carbon dioxide to syngas while mitigating the two greenhouse gases. Challenges for this reaction include sintering and severe carbon deposition. This paper reports a post-treatment strategy to develop Ni@hollow meso-SiO2 (Ni@HMS) catalyst from the existing Ni@SiO2 core-shell structure by utilizing the mechanism of etching and re-deposition of silica in mild alkaline solution with CTAB as a stabilizer. The varied post-treatment temperature changed the properties of Ni@HMS and demonstrated high catalytic performance compared to Ni@SiO2. The results from TEM and XPS showed the Ni particles were confined inside the mesoporous SiO2 shell and inhibit Ni particle mobility. The catalysts exhibited high conversion of methane (>80%) and carbon dioxide (>90%) for 50 h at 800 °C and WHSV of 54 000 mL gcat−1h−1 with high TOFCH4 of 7.08 s−1.