Efficient photothermal catalytic methane dry reforming over rich oxygen vacancy catalysts.

The catalysts of Ni nanoparticles supported on ZrO, LaO and LaZrO were prepared and employed in photothermal catalytic DRM. High yield of H and CO (76.2 and 99.1 mmol g min) and excellent durability (50 h) were achieved merely under focused light irradiation. 10Ni/LaO exhibited better resistance to carbon deposition compared to 10Ni/ZrO and 10Ni/LaZrO. Structural characterization and experimental data indicated that LaO has abundant oxygen vacancies, which can adsorb and activate CO to produce reactive oxygen species. Oxygen species transfer to nickel nanoparticles through the strong Ni-LaO interface to accelerate carbon oxidation. The experimental results indicated that light illumination can not only drive DRM reactions through photothermal conversion, but also improve catalytic activity by reducing the activation energy of reaction molecules and stability by increasing the oxygen vacancies.