Effect of Support PreparationMethod on the Performance of Ni/SrTiO₃ Catalysts for Dry Reformingof Methane

Abstract

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) offers an efficientroute to simultaneously convert CH₄ and CO₂ intosynthesis gas (H₂/CO), a key intermediate to produce fuels andvaluable chemicals. Ni-based catalysts are regarded as the most promisingcandidates due to their high activity and low cost; however, their stabilityremains a major obstacle under the DRM conditions. Perovskite-type oxides suchas SrTiO₃ possess high thermal stability, tunable composition, andstrong metal-support interactions, making them ideal to enhance the dispersionand durability of Ni species. In this study, Ni/SrTiO₃ catalystswere synthesized via co-precipitation(CP), hydrothermal (HT), and sol-gel (SG) methods, and were comprehensively characterizedbefore and after the reaction. The characterizations revealed that all samplespreserved the perovskite framework after reduction and reaction. Among them,Ni/HT-STO and Ni/SG-STO exhibited larger surface areas (18.8 and 13.9 m²·g^-1)and higher initial CH₄ conversions (66.3% and 68.9%) than Ni/CP-STO(44.8%). However, Ni/HT-STO underwent rapid deactivation, with CH₄ conversion decreasing to 21.2% after 60 h due to severe carbon accumulation(12.4 wt%) and notable Ni particle growth. In contrast, the sol-gel derivedNi/SG-STO maintained a higher activity (25.6% after 60 h) with moderate carbondeposition (9.2 wt%) and showed the smallest Ni particle growth of only 2.64 nm(from 14.91 to 17.55 nm), compared with 4.29 nm for Ni/CP-STO (25.83 to 30.12nm) and 6.08 nm for Ni/HT-STO (27.12 to 33.20 nm). Temperature-programmedsurface reaction (TPSR) analysis further revealed that Ni/SG-STO exhibited amore balanced CH₄ activation and CO₂ dissociation,enabling efficient carbon-oxygen coupling and inhibiting graphitic carbonformation. Overall, these results demonstrate that the sol-gel methodeffectively enhances the anti-sintering and anti-coking performance of Ni/SrTiO₃ catalysts.

Keywords

Dry reforming / SrTiO₃ / Ni / Carbon deposition / Preparation method / Sintering resistance

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, T.Y. and M.Z.; Methodology, T.Y. and H.S.; Formal Analysis, T.Y.; Investigation, T.Y., H.S. and N.J.; Validation, H.S. and J.Y.; Data Curation, T.Y.; Visualization, T.Y.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, T.Y.; Writing—Review & Editing, M.Z. and J.Y.; Supervision, M.Z.; Project Administration, M.Z.; Funding Acquisition, M.Z.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Data will be made available on request.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22408348) and the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province, China (Grant No. 242300421599).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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