Abstract: Three different methods were used to synthesize the nano zirconia, including coprecipitation method (the sample marked as ZrO2CP), ethanol thermal method (the sample marked as ZrO2ET) and solidstate method (the sample marked as ZrO2S). The techniques of XRD, BET and SEM were used to characterize the structural and surface properties of zirconia. The results showed that ZrO2S synthesized by solidstate method was of better structural properties  with larger BET surface area, more narrow pore size distribution and uniform particle size distribution. Methane reforming with carbon dioxide was used as the probe reaction to compare the activity and stability of the Ni based catalysts using ZrO2 as the support, which was synthesized by different methods. The reaction results show that Ni/ZrO2S catalyst exhibits the best catalytic activity and stability.