Alloying Ni-Cu Nanoparticles Encapsulated in SiO2 Nanospheres for Synergistic Catalysts in CO2 Reforming with Methane Reaction

Kaihang Han; Shuo Wang; Nan Hu; Weidong Shi; Fagen Wang

doi:10.1021/acsami.2c03757

Alloying Ni-Cu Nanoparticles Encapsulated in SiO₂ Nanospheres for Synergistic Catalysts in CO₂ Reforming with Methane Reaction

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 May 16. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c03757. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Kaihang Han^{1

2}, Shuo Wang¹, Nan Hu¹, Weidong Shi¹, Fagen Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, 212013 Zhenjiang, China.
² Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Guangzhou 510640, China.

PMID: 35576615
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c03757

Abstract

In this work, we studied CO₂ reforming with the methane (CRM) reaction over Ni-Cu alloy nanoparticles encapsulated in SiO₂ nanospheres, for which combinational functions of alloy effect, size effect, metal-support interaction, and confinement effect exhibited high performance, good sintering resistance, and trace carbon deposition in CRM. The appropriate Cu-addition catalysts 0.2Cu-Ni@SiO₂ and 0.5Cu-Ni@SiO₂ had smaller NiCu alloy nanoparticles and a stronger metal-support interaction, exhibiting a better performance than the excessive Cu-addition catalysts 1.5Cu-Ni@SiO₂ and 3Cu-Ni@SiO₂ having Cu clusters and a weaker metal-support interaction. The best synergy of alloy effect, size effect, confinement effect, and metal-support interaction in the 0.5Cu-Ni@SiO₂ catalyst contributed to the highest rates of CH₄ and CO₂ in CRM reported so far. This work demonstrates the importance of appropriate Cu addition in Ni-Cu@SiO₂ catalysts, and the synergy for perfectly resolving sintering and carbon deposition in CRM.

Keywords: CO2 reforming with methane; Ni−Cu alloy; core−shell structure; metal-support interaction; size effect; synergism.