Efficient Zr-MCM-41 supported nickel phyllosilicate catalyst for the plasma-involved dry reforming of CH4 and CO2

[Display omitted] •The nickel phyllosilicate species improve the catalyst activity.•The anchoring of Zr4+ and Ni2+ improves the metal-support interaction.•The CO2 adsorption appears to improve the catalytic stability.•The nickel phyllosilicate and added Zr species facilitate plasma discharge. Plasma can effectively lower the temperature of the dry reforming of methane (DRM) reaction. However, severe carbon deposition has hindered further development of the plasma-involved DRM reaction. In this work, an efficient Zr-MCM-41 supported nickel phyllosilicate (Ni-PS) catalyst has been developed to address the problem of carbon deposition caused by CH4 cracking. Comparing with the Ni/MCM-41 catalyst prepared by the impregnation method, XRD, TEM, and EXAFS et al. have revealed that the presence of nickel phyllosilicate species in (Ni-PS)/MCM-41 is advantageous in improving the catalyst's activity. Most importantly, adding Zr improves the stability of (Ni-PS)/Zr-MCM-41 catalyst during the 50 h time-on-stream evaluation. H2-TPR, XPS, CO2-TPD and EXAFS et al. characterizations confirm that adding Zr enhances the CO2 adsorption, and improves the metal-support interaction through the anchoring effect formed by the electron transfer between Ni2+ to Zr4+, which beneficial to enhance the ability of the catalyst to remove carbon deposition and improve the stability of the catalyst. This work provides an effective catalyst synthesis strategy for the plasma involved DRM reaction.