Cold plasma and ethanol coupling-activated Ni/MCM-41 catalysts with highly stability and activity for dry reforming of methane

The deficiency of hydroxyl in ethanol impregnation method for dry reforming of methane (DRM) resulted in poor activity and stability. A new cold H2-plasma activation technique was proposed to enhance the performance of ethanol impregnation catalyst. Nickel catalysts (NM-EA-PH) supported on MCM-41 were prepared and activated by cold H2-plasma. And its structure and catalytic performances were evaluated. The BET results revealed that the addition of ethanol significantly reduced the effect of plasma on the carrier MCM-41. The ethanol-coupled H2-plasma treatment effectively reduced the nickel particles, and the particle size of NM-EA-PH catalyst was only 7.4 nm, which was 10.8 nm smaller than that of MCM-41 loaded nickel catalyst (NM-C) prepared by conventional impregnation method and activated by conventional roasting (18.2 nm), and enhanced Ni-carrier interaction. Consequently, the catalyst NM-EA-PH had high initial activity with excellent stability, with a low carbon deposition (1.72%) after 20 h of continuous reaction at 700 °C, which was 25.57% less than that of NM-C (27.29%) catalyst. This study introduces a new approach by exploring the effect of plasma-assisted ethanol impregnation method on developing high-performance catalysts.