Highly coke-resistant ordered mesoporous Ni/SiC with large surface areas in CO₂ reforming of CH₄

An ordered mesoporous SiC (SiC-OM) material with high specific surface area (345 m²/g) and narrow pore distribution was prepared by a nanocasting method, and a commercial SiC (49 m²/g, SiC-C) was used as a reference carrier. The Ni/SiC-C and Ni/SiC-OM catalysts were prepared by an incipient wetness impregnation method, and tested in the CO₂ reforming of CH₄(CRM). The textural properties of fresh and used catalysts were characterized by means of ICP, BET, XRD, H₂-TPR, XPS, HRTEM, TG, and Raman. The results suggested the average carbon deposition rate over the Ni/SiC-OM decreased one order of magnitude compared with the Ni/SiC-C during 50 h of CRM reaction, due to the strong interaction between Ni species and SiC-OM support and confinement effect of rigid mesoporous skeleton.