Foam‐Structured NiO‐MgO‐Al2O3 Nanocomposites Derived from NiMgAl Layered Double Hydroxides In Situ Grown onto Nickel Foam: A Promising Catalyst for High‐Throughput Catalytic Oxymethane Reforming

The catalytic oxy-methane reforming (COMR) is an effective and effcient route to produce syngas, but the commonly-used Ni catalysts suffer from coke deposition, Ni-sintering and heat transfer limitation. A Ni-foam-structured NiO-MgO-Al2O3 nanocomposite catalyst was developed via thermal decomposition of NiMgAl layered double hydroxides (LDHs) in situ hydrothermally grown onto the Ni-foam. Originated from the lattice orientation effect and topotactic decomposition of LDHs precursor, NiO, MgO and Al2O3 are highly distributed in the nanocomposites, and thus this catalyst delivered enhanced coke-/sintering-resistance. At 700 oC and a gas hourly space velocity of 100 L g-1 h-1, 86.5% methane conversion and 91.8%/88.0% selectivities to H2/CO could be achieved with a stability for at least 200 h. We anticipate that our approach opens a new opportunity for new-generate structured catalytic reactor for COMR process even other high-throughput and/or exothermic reaction processes.