Facile synthesis of ordered mesoporous Ni–Zr–Al catalysts with high hydrothermal stability for CO methanation

Abstract

For supported nickel catalysts used for catalytic reactions with presence of water vapor, it is a great challenge to let them have high resistance to sintering, coking as well as water vapor simultaneously. To address this problem, we synthesized a series of ternary ordered mesoporous Ni–Zr–Al metal oxide composites via an evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) and applied them to the CO methanation reaction. Compared to the ordered mesoporous Ni–Al catalyst, the ordered mesoporous Ni–Zr–Al catalyst showed much improved hydrothermal stability, because the incorporated Zr species could act as the supporter for the OMA framework, effectively preventing it from sintering-caused structural collapse and phase transition during the hydrothermal treatment; also, in a 120 h-lifetime test, the ordered mesoporous Ni–Zr–Al catalyst showed high anti-coking and anti-sintering properties, mainly because of the confinement effect of the mesopore channels as well as the incorporation of the zirconia promoter.