Enhancing dry reforming of methane with engineered SBA-15-supported Fe-Ni alloy nanoparticles for sustainable syngas production

We present a novel approach to fabricate an iron-nickel alloy material tailored for methane dry reforming (DRM) by embedding FeNi3 nanoparticles within an engineered SBA-15 mesoporous silica framework with a tunable structure (FeNi3@SBA-15). This alloy material exhibits superior DRM performance, achieving impressive methane conversions exceeding 98% and 99% at temperatures of 800 degrees C and 900 degrees C respectively. Moreover, FeNi3@SBA-15 demonstrates remarkable coking resistance and significantly outperforms the equivalent bulk catalyst. Specifically, we observe a methane conversion increase of over 400% and a carbon dioxide conversion increase of over 700% within the temperature range of 600 degrees C to 800 degrees C. Theoretical calculations reveal that coordinately unsaturated Ni atoms on FeNi3 nanoparticles significantly promote the activation ability of C-H and C-O, leading to enhanced DRM performance. The insights gained from this study provide valuable guidance for the design of advanced alloy materials to efficiently mitigate greenhouse gases, while also opening the path towards sustainable syngas production, offering a viable and environmentally friendly approach to energy generation.