Elucidating the promoting mechanism of coordination-driven self-assembly MOFs/SiO2 composite derived catalyst for dry reforming of methane with CO2

Abstract

A mesoporous SiO2 (termed as mSiO2) confined Ni-MgO solid-solution catalyst (termed as Ni-MgO@mSiO2MOF) with high specific surface area (704.9 m2·g−1) has been synthesized derived from the MOFs/mSiO2 composite towards the in-situ generated Ni-Mg bimetallic MOFs cross-linked mSiO2 gel with chemical interaction for the first time. The developed Ni-MgO@mSiO2MOF exhibits remarkable catalytic activity (nearly reaching thermodynamic equilibrium), stability as well as coke-resistance (1.25 mg·gcat−1·h−1) compared with those of classic Ni-MgO/mSiO2NO3 catalyst (7.47 mg⋅gcat−1⋅h−1) without using MOFs-templated strategy. The enhanced performance of Ni-MgO@mSiO2MOF catalyst for DRM was attributed to that more highly dispersed metallic Ni, stronger Ni-MgO-mSiO2 interaction, as well as more surface OH* species in comparison with those of classic Ni-MgO/mSiO2NO3. We anticipate that design strategy will provide a novel alternative to expand opportunities to explore scalable and cost-effective non-noble metal catalysts on a molecular level for other industrial reactions.