Thermal catalysis is the most investigated approach for methane dry reforming (MDR) reaction over Ni-based catalysts. However, sintering and carbon deposition in the conventional approach tend to deactivate the Ni catalysts. Developing new technique to resolve the problems is a hot topic for MDR. Herein, we reported a novel (Ni/CeO₂)@SiO₂ catalyst for MDR by photothermal catalysis. The catalyst was characterized by BET, XRD, TEM and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum to analysis structural and optical properties, which were applied to build relationship with MDR performance. The results revealed that band gap energy of ceria in the catalyst was significantly narrowed by the tiny size of crystal ceria, leading to strong absorbance of visible solar light. The adsorption considerably promoted activations of CH₄ on Ni and CO₂ on CeO₂, and greatly improved gasification of CH_x at Ni-CeO₂ boundaries. Along with confinement effect from silica shell, sintering and carbon deposition were both resolved for the (Ni/CeO₂)@SiO₂ catalyst in photothermal MDR. Consequently, photothermal MDR was higher and more stable than thermal MDR over the catalyst. The work provided a new way of photothermal MDR to enhance activity and stability, and simultaneously resolved problems of sintering and carbon deposition.

热催化是在Ni基催化剂上进行甲烷干重整（MDR）反应的研究最多的方法。然而，常规方法中的烧结和碳沉积倾向于使Ni催化剂失活。开发新技术解决问题是MDR的热门话题。在这里，我们报道了一种新颖的（Ni / CeO ₂）@SiO ₂光热催化的MDR催化剂。通过BET，XRD，TEM和UV-vis漫反射光谱对催化剂进行了表征，以分析其结构和光学性质，从而建立了与MDR性能的关系。结果表明，由于二氧化铈的微小尺寸，二氧化铈在催化剂中的带隙能明显变窄，从而导致可见光的强烈吸收。吸附显着促进了Ni上的CH ₄活化和CeO ₂上的CO ₂活化，并大大改善了Ni-CeO ₂边界处CH _x的气化。随着硅壳的约束作用，解决了（Ni / CeO ₂）@SiO的烧结和碳沉积的问题。₂在光热MDR中的催化剂。因此，在催化剂上，光热MDR比热MDR更高且更稳定。这项工作为提高活性和稳定性提供了一种光热MDR的新方法，同时解决了烧结和积碳的问题。