Engineering a Nickel–Oxygen Vacancy Interface for Enhanced Dry Reforming of Methane: A Promoted Effect of CeO<sub>2</sub> Introduction into Ni/MgO
Xi Ding, Yunfeng Yang, Zhaoyang Li, Peitao Huang, Xiaohui Liu, Yong Guo, Yanqin Wang
Abstract
Nickel, the most commonly used active metal for the dry reforming of methane (DRM), often encounters the challenge of severe deactivation due to sintering and carbon deposition. In this study, we introduce cerium into Ni/MgO, a traditional catalyst for DRM, to improve its activity and stability, resulting in an enhanced Ni/MgCeO x catalyst. With the optimized doping amount of cerium (Ce/Mg = 0.12), the catalyst demonstrates a conversion rate 65% for CH 4, 75% for CO 2, and a H 2 /CO ratio of 0.76, while the Ni/MgO catalyst only achieves a conversion rate of 57% for CH 4, 65% for CO 2, and a H 2 /CO ratio of 0.68. Furthermore, the introduction of cerium significantly improves the stability of the catalyst. These improved activity and stability can be attributed to the easy reducibility of NiO x species, small Ni particle size, and abundant oxygen vacancies resulting from the doping of cerium. The affinity between CeO 2 and NiO x inhibits the formation of the NiO-MgO solid solution, which contributes to the enhanced performance.