Tiny Ni particles dispersed in platelet SBA-15 materials induce high efficiency for CO2 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 .