| Summary: | Heat and mass transport properties of heterogeneous catalysts have significant effects on their overall performance in many industrial chemical reaction processes. In this work, a new catalyst micro-architecture consisting of a highly thermally conductive SiC core with a high-surface-area metal-oxide shell is prepared through a charge-interaction-induced heterogeneous hydrothermal construction of SiC@NiAl-LDH core-shell microstructures. Calcination and reduction of the SiC@NiAl-LDH core-shell results in the formation of Ni nanoparticles (NPs) dispersed on SiC@Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, referred to as Ni/SiC@Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> core-shell catalyst. The Ni/SiC@Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> exhibit petal-like shell morphology consisting of a number of Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> platelets with their planes oriented perpendicular to the surface, which is beneficial for improved mass transfer. For an extended period of methane-stream-reforming reaction, the Ni/SiC@Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> core-shell structure remained stable without any significant degradation at the core/shell interface. However, the catalyst suffered from coking and sintering likely associated with the relatively large Ni particle sizes and the low Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> content. The synthesis procedure and chemistry for construction of supported Ni catalyst on the core-shell microstructure of the highly thermal conductive SiC core, and the morphology-controlled metal-oxide shell, could provide new opportunities for various catalytic reaction processes that require high heat flux and enhanced mass transport.
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