Dendritic fibrous SBA-15 supported nickel (Ni/DFSBA-15): a sustainable catalyst for hydrogen production

Abstract

In the present study, dendritic fibrous type SBA-15 (DFSBA-15) was successfully discovered for the first time by modulating the typical rod-like SBA-15. The synthesized DFSBA-15 was loaded with 5 wt% Ni, catalytically applied in dry reforming of methane (DRM), and catalytically compared with the conventional Ni/SBA-15. Characterization (XRD, BET, FTIR, TEM, SEM-EDX, CO2-TPD, and H2-TPR) results showed that Ni/DFSBA-15 consists of high basic sites, uniform Ni distribution, and easy reducible of NiO, resulting to the ameliorated catalytic activity, coking resistance and high catalytic stability with no indication of deactivation after 30 h time-on-stream for Ni/DFSBA-15. The superior activity of Ni/DFSBA-15 ( = 84.43%, = 86.29%, = 64.94%, = 40.09% and = 6.64 mmol/g.s) might be ascribed to the open and flexible fibrous hierarchical of DFSBA-15 support, that rendered higher active sites accessibility and oxygen vacancy than that of SBA-15. The relatively inferior performance of Ni/SBA-15 ( = 77.12%, = 78.02%, = 46.96%, = 33.26% and = 4.80 mmol/g.s) can be accounted on the one-end opening pores of pristine SBA-15 which are easily clogged by NiO nanoparticles, consequently, hindering reactant gaseous from accessing its active sites. The post reaction characterizations (XRD and TPO), confirmed the insignificant coke deposition and metal sintering for Ni/DFSBA-15. The promising physicochemical and catalytic properties possessed by unique DFSBA-15, acknowledged its feasibility in H2 production via DRM.