Sol–gel synthesis and characterization of silica supported nickel ferrite catalysts for dry reforming of methane

• Sol–gel method using TMOS is used for nickel ferrite–SiO2 nano-particles synthesis.
• Supported catalysts exhibit a higher acidity compared to unsupported NF.
• The surface acidity limits the relative contribution of RWGS reaction.
• Silica supported catalysts are more selective for DRM compared to unsupported NF.

Silica-supported NiFe2O4 spinel was prepared by sol–gel method using tetramethyl orthosilicate as a precursor of silica. B.E.T., XRD, MEB–EDS, TEM, XPS and Raman scattering techniques were used for its characterization. The reducibility by hydrogen was investigated by TPR and HT-XRD. These properties are compared to those of unsupported NiFe2O4. Both acidic and redox sites were found by studying the decomposition of isopropanol. First experiments in the dry reforming of methane by CO2 showed that owing to more acidic properties supporting NiFe2O4 on silica provides a more active and selective catalyst that seems less prone to coking.