CO methanation plays an important role in production of synthetic natural gas from coal.Application of Ni-based catalysts was restricted due to poor activity at low temperature

coke forming and Ni particle sintering at high temperature.A series of Nd-decorated Ni-Nd-Al ordered mesoporous methanation catalysts were synthesized by improved solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly method

and their catalytic performances for CO methanation were investigated.N2 adsorption

X-ray diffraction (XRD)

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)

field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

bright-field transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize structure and morphology of both fresh and used catalysts.The results showed that all Ni-Nd-Al catalysts had ordered mesoporous structures

in which Ni particles were anchored but Nd species were dispersed in the ordered mesoporous alumina channels.Addition of appropriate Nd contributed to size reduction and dispersion improvement of Ni particles

and adsorption enhancement of H2

such that catalytic performance was promoted.The confinement effect of ordered mesoporous channels attributed to better anti-coking and anti-sintering properties of catalysts.