Light-driven efficient dry reforming of methane over Pt/La2O3 with long-term durability

Abstract

The instability caused by coking and catalyst sintering during the dry reforming of methane (DRM) is a major obstacle to their commercialization. Herein, Pt/La₂O₃ exhibits high yield of syngas and satisfactory durability of at least 200 h during the DRM reaction under focused light illumination without external heating, and no obvious aggregation occurs to Pt nanoparticles on Pt/La₂O₃. The H₂ production rate of 1284.5 mmol g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹ and the selectivity of ∼0.89 in photothermocatalysis are 3.0 and 2.1 folds of those in the thermocatalysis at the same temperature (700 °C), respectively. Light-excited hot electrons and more oxygen vacancies accelerate the spontaneous desorption of H₂ and the activation and dissociation of CH₄ and CO₂ to improve the catalytic performance, which together with the strong Pt-support interaction contributes to the reaction stability. The stable catalyst design can be extended to other harsh reactions, offering great potential for industrial applications.