Abstract

The objective of the present work was studied the catalytic activity in the dry methane reforming reaction on nickel catalysts supported on carbon nanofoams. These catalysts were synthesized by controlled pyrolysis of saccharose under flow of N2, the saccharose was dissolved in aqueous solutions (5, 10, 20, 37 and 50%wt.) of nickel nitrate salts and were denoted as NW-Ni. The catalytic activities were investigated in a fixed-bed reactor, under mild conditions (650ºC, 1atm). N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, XRD, FTIR, and XPS were used to characterize the obtained catalysts before and after reaction. The results showed that NW-Ni(37%wt.) exhibits the highest catalytic activity, as well as more stability through reaction, this could be attributed to the formation in situ of highly surface dispersed of the Ni active sites. The investigation indicates that nickel foams catalysts prepared from the controlled pyrolysis of saccharose could be employed as interesting materials in catalysis.