Dry Reforming of Methane on a Highly-Active Ni-CeO2 Catalyst: Effects of Metal-Support Interactions on C-H bond breaking

P. G. LUSTEMBERG; SI LUO; DARIO J. STACCHIOLA; H. F. BUSNENGO; JOSÉ A. RODRIGUEZ; ZONGYUAN LIU; THUY-DUONG NGUYEN-PHAN; IRADWIKANARI WALUYO; JING ZHOU; M. V. GANDUGLIA-PIROVANO; DAVID C. GRINTER; YINGHUI ZHOU; ETHAN J. CRUMLIN; JAVIER CARRASCO; SANJAYA SENANAYAKE

Angewandte Chemie

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2016 vol. 55 p. 7455 - 7459

1433-7851

Ni-CeO2 is a highly efficient, stable and non-expensive catalyst for methane dry reforming at relative low temperatures (700K). The active phase of the catalyst consists of small nanoparticles of nickel dispersed on partially reduced ceria. Experiments of ambient pressure XPS indicate that methane dissociates on Ni/CeO2 at temperatures as low as 300K, generating CHx and COx species on the surface of the catalyst. Strong metal-support interactions activate Ni for the dissociation of methane. The results of density-functional calculations show a drop in the effective barrier for methane activation from 0.9eV on Ni(111) to only 0.15eV on Ni/CeO2-x(111). At 700K, under methane dry reforming conditions, no signals for adsorbed CHx or C species are detected in the C1s XPS region. The reforming of methane proceeds in a clean and efficient way.