On the role of Ce in CO(2) adsorption and activation over lanthanum species

La(2)O(3) exhibits good performance for various catalytic applications, such as oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) and dry reforming of methane (DRM), during which coke formation may lead to the deactivation of catalysts. Typically, the reaction between CO(2) adsorbed on La(2)O(3) and coke is the rate-determining step of the coke elimination process. This paper describes the influence of Ce addition on the CO(2) adsorption and activation over La(2)O(3). Combined with in situ and ex situ characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculation, we show that Ce addition promotes the formation of bidentate carbonate on La(2)O(3)via tuning CO(2) adsorption energy. In addition, Ce addition adjusts the ratio of bidentate/monodentate carbonate, and affects the ratio of hexagonal/monoclinic La(2)O(2)CO(3) on the binary oxides. DRM is used as a probe reaction to examine the coke elimination performance of Ce–La binary oxide. It is found that when the Ce/La ratio reaches the optimal value (0.15), Ce–La binary oxide has the highest CO(2) adsorption energy and predominantly promotes the formation of bidentate carbonate, and hence possesses the highest basicity above 700 °C and finally exhibits the best coke elimination performance.