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 CH4 selectivity during CO2 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 CO2 hydrogenation and CH4 formation during CO2 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 CO2, thus resulting in high reaction rates for CO2 and CO hydrogenation. The reaction kinetics, reaction pathway and active sites were studied and correlated to the high catalytic activity for CO2 hydrogenation to form CH4.