Surface growth of mixed metal oxide thin rafts and their impact on methane dry reforming

Synergistic interactions between the supported thin oxide layer and the underlying metal oxide support led to the development of novel and exciting material properties. In this work, we present a new and general approach for the surface growth of MgAl layered double hydroxides (LDH) on ZrO₂, Al₂O₃, and TiO₂ support materials. We examine the synergistic interactions between the top MgAlO x mixed metal oxide (MMO), obtained after LDH calcination, and the underlying metal oxide support (MMO/metal oxide) as a function of MMO loading and support type. The obtained materials are characterized using a range of analytical tools ICP-OES, H 2 -TPR, CO 2 -TPD, PXRD, TGA/DSC, physisorption, HRSEM-EDS and HAADF-STEM–EDS followed by catalytic testing. We show that regardless of the MMO/metal oxide combination, effective interaction between the MMO and the underlying support, more dominant at the lower MMO coverage, promotes synergistic effects, manifested by a lower Ni reduction temperature compared to Ni on bulk MMO. Evaluating the obtained catalysts (Ni/MMO/metal oxide) in the dry reforming of methane (DRM) reaction, we find that the increase in MgAlO x -MMO coating amount on the ZrO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) leads to an improvement in DRM activity and stability. In addition, we find that for the same MgAlO x -MMO coating amount, the Ni catalyst based on the ZrO 2 NPs is superior to the catalyst based on Al 2 O 3 NPs, while the catalyst based on TiO 2 NPs is the least active. The obtained results are explained in context to the extent of coating, metal support interaction (MSI) levels, and support structure. Combined with the high versatility of LDH material, this new methodology provides a versatile synthetic route to adapt the surface property of an oxide to a certain application. For DRM, we show the tunning of MSI as governed by the interactions between the underlying metal oxide and supported MMO. • A general approach for surface growth of MgAl layered double hydroxides on various metal oxide supports was demonstrated. • Metal support interactions (MSI) were tuned by varying the degree of surface coating. • The effect of the underlying metal oxide on MSI and the activity and stability in dry reforming was demonstrated. • A correlation between catalyst properties and catalysis is shown