Revealing the Support Effect of Nickel‐Based Catalysts Toward CO 2 Methanation

Abstract Understanding the role of support is of guiding significance for studying the structure–activity relationship of supported Ni‐based catalysts. In this work, catalysts with 0.1, 1, and 10 wt.% of NiO supported on CeO 2 , ZrO 2 , TiO 2 , and Al 2 O 3 were prepared by the impregnation method. The catalytic performance of CO 2 methanation was correlated with Ni particle size, reducibility, and basicity. The activity of the catalyst was found to be positively correlated with both the Ni particle size and reducibility, which promote the hydrogen dissociation and CO 2 activation processes, respectively. However, the basicity of the catalyst does not seem to be related to the reaction activity. Moreover, the coexistence of formate and the associative mechanism over the catalysts was evidenced.