Marked role of mesopores for the prevention of sintering and carbon deposition in dry reforming of methane over ordered mesoporous Ni–Mg–Al oxides

Ordered mesoropous Ni–Al and Ni–Mg–Al oxides were prepared by evaporation induce self-assembly method using Pluronic P123 as a soft template. Ni–Al and Ni–Mg–Al oxides without P123 addition were also prepared. The prepared ordered mesoporous catalysts showed much higher activity and durability for dry reforming of methane than those without ordered mesoporous structure. The N2 sorption and transmission electron microscope observation revealed that the ordered structure was kept after reaction at 750 °C for 30 h. The sintering of Ni was prevented and the coke formation was suppressed on mesoporous catalysts. Although the addition of Mg was not so efficient for improving the activity of mesoporous catalyst, benefit for suppressing coke formation was observed.