high activity of Ni/Si3N4 catalyst,high selectivity and remarkable resistance to coke formation in partial oxidation of methane (POM) were reported.This work is part of a broad investigation seeking nickel catalysts supported by silicon nitride with high catalytic performance for POM.The effects of nickel loading and calcination temperature on the catalytic performance were investigated with XRD,TPR and XPS.The characterization results suggested that the nickel loading and calcination temperature affected the catalyst performance via influencing surface distribution and crystallite size of active components strongly.The order of methane conversion of Ni/Si3N4 catalysts with different nickel loadings and calcination temperatures was C-10>C-15>C-5>C-1 and S(400)>S(600)>S(800) respectively.