A series of alumina-supported nickel catalysts were prepared by calcination of the catalyst precursors in air at different temperatures. The increase in the intensity of Ni-Al2O3 interactions with the calcination temperature was found to be unfavourable to the reduction of the catalyst, and thus caused a decrease in activity for the low temperature reaction between methane and carbon dioxide. However, the catalyst with strong Ni-Al2O3 interactions suppressed carbon deposition effectively, which can be attributed to the formation of spinel, NiAl2O4, after calcination. When the reaction was carried out at 1023 K, all the catalysts tended to exhibit the same activity. At the same time, only filamentous carbon with a hollow inner channel was observed and there were nickel particles on the tip of this filamentous carbon.