Synthesis of the NiO-Faujasite Nanocatalyst for Dry Reforming of Methane: The Effect of the Aniline Additive

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) using a heterogeneous catalyst presents one of the CO₂ mitigation pathways to address global warming and climate change challenges. Such a suitable DRM catalyst with optimum activity and stability is still under intense research. We herein present a facile, slightly modified version of the conventional wet impregnation method to synthesize a NiO-faujasite nanocatalyst for DRM with the help of aniline, judiciously chosen based on the hard-soft acid-base (HSAB) principle. The resulting catalyst was characterized by the N₂ adsorption isotherm, PXRD, SEM/TEM, XPS, ²⁹Si solid-state NMR, H₂-TPR, NH₃-TPD, and DRM reaction, and its results were compared with those without aniline assistance. A smaller NiO nanoparticle with better dispersion was observed for our aniline-assisted sample resulting in a significant increase in activity (peaking at 86% CH₄ conversion with a H₂/CO ratio of 0.93) and stability for a 12 h time on stream. We hope that this work would pave the way to utilize the HSAB principle to synthesize more nanocatalysts with optimum overall performance.