Controlling the Reconstruction of Ni/CeO2 Catalyst during Reduction for Enhanced CO Methanation

Reductive pretreatment is an important step for activating supported metal catalysts but has received lit-tle attention. In this study, reconstruction of the supported nickel catalyst was found to be sensitive to pretreatment conditions. In contrast to the traditional activation procedure in hydrogen, activating the catalyst in syngas created supported Ni nanoparticles with a polycrystalline structure containing an abundance of grain boundaries. The unique post-activation catalyst structure offered enhanced CO adsorption and an improved CO methanation rate. The current strategy to tune the catalyst structure via manipulating the activation conditions can potentially guide the rational design of other supported metal catalysts.(c) 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press Limited Company. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The reconstruction of supported nickel catalyst was found to be sensitive to pretreatment conditions. Activating the catalyst in syngas instead of hydrogen resulted in supported Ni nanoparticles with a polycrystalline structure and abundant grain boundaries. This unique catalyst structure enhanced CO adsorption and improved CO methanation rate, and can potentially guide the rational design of other supported metal catalysts.