Designing highly efficient catalysts
for use in fuel production
is a highly attractive research area but still remains challenging.
Herein, for the first time, ultrafine Ni nanoparticles (NPs) self-assembled
on ceria nanowires (NWs) and then embedded in a microporous silica
shell (denoted as Ni-CeO2@SiO2) are successfully
designed and synthesized via a one-pot facile strategy. The average
diameter of Ni-CeO2 NWs is just 2.9 nm, and the length
is up to 102.7 nm. The resulting Ni-CeO2@SiO2 exhibits high performance and 100% hydrogen selectivity for H2 production from N2H4 and N2H4BH3 in aqueous solution. Unexpectedly, Ni-CeO2@SiO2 also has good catalytic performance and thermal
stability for CO2 methanation. The high catalytic performance
of Ni-CeO2@SiO2 can be attributed to the synergistic
electronic effect and strong interaction between Ni NPs and CeO2 NWs with plenty of oxygen vacancies, as well as the unique
structure effect. As an effective strategy, the present work provides
an opportunity to embed ultrafine metal NPs-CeO2 NWs into
a microporous silica shell, which has broad application prospects
in various catalytic fields.