CO2 reforming of methane over LaNiO3 as precursor material

When using a non-reduced precursor material, the introduction of the reactant at 700 °C instead of at room temperature leads to a lower activity, whereas the nickel particle size distribution is quite similar for the two experiments. To explain the differences in the catalytic activity, we can assume that the number of accessible sites is different, consequently the way the active species are generated is a key step for the reaction.