Tiny Ni particles dispersed in platelet SBA-15 materials induce high efficiency for CO methanation

In this study, short-channel SBA-15 with a platelet morphology (p-SBA-15) is used to support Ni to effectively enhance catalytic activity and CH 4 selectivity during CO 2 hydrogenation. The use of p-SBA-15 as a support can result in smaller Ni particle sizes than Ni particles on typical SBA-15 supports because p-SBA-15 possesses a larger surface area and a greater ability to provide metal-support interactions. The Ni/p-SBA-15 materials with tiny Ni particles exhibit enhanced catalytic activity toward CO 2 hydrogenation and CH 4 formation during CO 2 hydrogenation compared to the same Ni loading on a SBA-15 support. The presence of metal-support interaction on the Ni/p-SBA-15 catalyst may increase the possibility of abundance of strongly adsorbing sites for CO and CO 2 , thus resulting in high reaction rates for CO 2 and CO hydrogenation. The reaction kinetics, reaction pathway and active sites were studied and correlated to the high catalytic activity for CO 2 hydrogenation to form CH 4 . The use of Ni loading can be significantly reduced in the application of CO 2 hydrogenation, which can enhance catalytic activity and CH 4 selectivity.