Amine-functionalized metal-organic framework-templated nitrogen-doped Ni-alumina catalyst for efficient methane tri-reforming
(2026) Applied Materials Today — Vol. 51, p. 103292 (2026)
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- Authors
Terefe, Rediat 
- Abstract
- An N-doped nickel nanocatalyst supported on alumina was synthesized using NH2-MIL-53(Al) metal-organic framework (MOF) as a sacrificial template to demonstrate its promising potential for the conversion of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4) into synthesis gas. The doped Ni-alumina catalyst presented active metallic nanoparticles supported on γ-alumina. The small-sized Ni particles (13 nm) have larger dispersion (5.1%) than the undoped catalyst, a higher surface area of active metallic sites (1.7 m2/gcat), and moderate basic sites (0.66 mmol/gcat) on the surface, which might be due to the combine effect of N-doping and difference in the catalyst synthesis conditions. The combination of N-doping and variations in synthesis technique influenced the distribution of basic sites strength, which may have modified the CO2 adsorption, and contributed to more activation and enhanced conversion (48%) compared to the undoped catalyst (37.5%). In line with this, the improved CO2 conversion promoted more CO production and adjusted the H2/CO molar ratio of the synthesis gas close to the desired range (2.0–2.5), required for its subsequent utilization in the Fischer-Tropsch process to produce valuable chemicals and fuels. In addition, the catalyst demonstrated remarkable stability for more than 100 h at 800 °C without any signs of deactivation. These findings highlight the positive roles of nitrogen doping, the MOF-derived structure, and the catalyst synthesis conditions in achieving both enhanced catalytic activity and long-term stability of an oxide catalyst.
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Citations
Sharma, A., Terefe, R., Singh, M., Tomer, R., Steenhaut, T., Tonelli, A., Hermans, S., & Biswas, P. (2026). Amine-functionalized metal-organic framework-templated nitrogen-doped Ni-alumina catalyst for efficient methane tri-reforming. Applied Materials Today, 51, 103292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmt.2026.103292 (Original work published 2026)