Excellent behaviors of highly dispersed Ni-based catalyst in CO methanation synthesized by in-situ hydrothermal method with carbon quantum dots assisted

Abstract

Confining the active metal particles inside the channel of mesoporous support is an effective way to improve the catalytic activity and stability, as well as enhance the metal usage thus reducing the required amount of supported metal. In our research, a novel highly efficient Nickel-based catalyst with the metal particles confined in the pores of mesoporous support was obtained by in-situ hydrothermal synthesis with carbon quantum dots (CQDs) assisted. This catalyst is of scientific significance for low metal content (as low as 0.9 wt%), except for its large specific surface area, high metal dispersion and small metal particle size. And the catalyst exhibits satisfying CO methanation catalytic activity with 95% CO conversion and 90% CH4 selectivity at 400 °C and 15000 mlg−1h−1 when the metal loading is 0.9 wt%. Meanwhile, the catalyst presents excellent thermal and long-term stability for that the metal particles are confined inside the pores of support, which could strengthen the metal-support interaction and thus inhibiting the metal agglomeration and carbon deposition effectively.