The metal-support interaction is of critical importance to enhance the catalytic activity and selectivity. However, it is still challenging to construct an appropriate interaction starting from the catalyst fabrication and/or activation. We herein established low-temperature treatment of Ni²⁺ ions impregnated on ceria in reductive atmosphere and reduction–oxidation cycles as effective approachs to regulate the metal-support interaction and raise the catalytic performance in the CO₂ methanation. The proposed construction approach yielded Ni/CeO₂ that displayed highly dispersed Ni nanoparticles in contact with CeO₂ (111) and (100) facet, higher density of surface oxygen vacancies and larger amounts of weak basic sites relative to the reference samples, which increased the capacity for H₂ and CO₂ adsorption/activation. The interaction resulted in appreciably (2–3 fold) higher activity in the CO₂ methanation with maintaining almost full selectivity to CH₄ and high stability. Coverage of Ni surface by CeO_2−x thin layer as a typical structure of strong metal-support interaction resulting from high-temperature reduction, can be alleviated via reduction–oxidation cycles. We also demonstrate the activation treatment-determined metal-support interaction effect can generally extend to (TiO₂ and ZrO₂) supported Ni catalysts.

金属-载体相互作用对于增强催化活性和选择性至关重要。然而，从催化剂的制造和/或活化开始构建适当的相互作用仍然是挑战性的。我们在这里建立了在还原性气氛和还原-氧化循环中对浸渍在二氧化铈上的Ni ²⁺离子进行低温处理的方法，以此作为调节金属-载体相互作用并提高CO ₂甲烷化催化性能的有效方法。拟议的构建方法产生了Ni / CeO ₂，该Ni / CeO ₂显示出与CeO ₂接触的高度分散的Ni纳米颗粒（111）和（100）面，相对于参考样品，表面氧空位的密度更高，碱性位点的数量更多，这增加了H ₂和CO ₂吸附/活化的能力。这种相互作用在保持对CH ₄几乎完全选择性和高稳定性的同时，使CO ₂甲烷化的活性明显提高了（2-3倍）。CeO _{2- x}薄层覆盖镍表面是高温还原导致的强金属-载体相互作用的典型结构，可通过还原-氧化循环来缓解。我们还证明了活化处理确定的金属-载体相互作用效应通常可以扩展到（TiO ₂和ZrO ₂）负载的Ni催化剂。