Modification of Al ₂ O ₃ ‐based catalyst by rare earth elements for steam reforming of methane

Abstract Modification of rare earth elements (Ln) often contributes to the improved performance in many applications compared with the monometallic catalysts, but the current research is only limited in the individual light rare earth elements. In this work, a series of Ln elements involving Gd, Sm, Nd, Pr, and La was added into monometallic Ni/Al 2 O 3 system to focus how the microstructure of active Ni centers depended on the presence and contents of Ln, and thus improved the catalytic behavior in the steam reforming of methane. Enhanced catalytic behavior could be observed over Ln‐modified Ni catalysts, among which Ni‐Gd/Al 2 O 3 was predicted to be more high‐efficient no matter supported on power or spherical Al 2 O 3 catalysts. A combined investigation of XPS with STEM and TPR was carried out over the candidates to reveal the structure‐performance relationship. Furthermore, this was further applied to noble metal systems, realizing the benign universality of the modification strategy.