The Role of Strontium in CeNiO 3 Nano-Crystalline Perovskites for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation to Produce Syngas.

The transition metal-based catalysts for the elimination of greenhouse gases via methane reforming using carbon dioxide are directly or indirectly associated with their distinguishing characteristics such as well-dispersed metal nanoparticles, a higher number of reducible species, suitable metal-support interaction, and high specific surface area. This work presents the insight into catalytic performance as well as catalyst stability of Ce x Sr 1-x NiO 3 (x = 0.6-1) nanocrystalline perovskites for the production of hydrogen via methane reforming using carbon dioxide. Strontium incorporation enhances specific surface area, the number of reducible species, and nickel dispersion. The catalytic performance results show that CeNiO 3 demonstrated higher initial CH 4 (54.3%) and CO 2 (64.8%) conversions, which dropped down to 13.1 and 19.2% (CH 4 conversions) and 26.3 and 32.5% (CO 2 conversions) for Ce 0.8 Sr 0.2 NiO 3 and Ce 0.6 Sr 0.4 NiO 3 , respectively. This drop in catalytic conversions post strontium addition is concomitant with strontium carbonate covering nickel active sites. Moreover, from the durability results, it is obvious that CeNiO 3 exhibited deactivation, whereas no deactivation was observed for Ce 0.8 Sr 0.2 NiO 3 and Ce 0.6 Sr 0.4 NiO 3 . Carbon deposition during the reaction is mainly responsible for catalyst deactivation, and this is further established by characterizing spent catalysts.