Exploring the ternary interactions in Cu-ZnO-ZrO<sub>2</sub> catalysts for efficient CO<sub>2</sub> hydrogenation to methanol.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30858380.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-09072-6 and PMC identifier 6411953.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The synergistic interaction among different components in complex catalysts is one of the crucial factors in determining catalytic performance. Here we report the interactions among the three components in controlling the catalytic performance of Cu-ZnO-ZrO<sub>2</sub> (CZZ) catalyst for CO<sub>2</sub> hydrogenation to methanol. The in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) measurements under the activity test pressure (3 MPa) reveal that the CO<sub>2</sub> hydrogenation to methanol on the CZZ catalysts follows the formate pathway. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations agree with the in situ DRIFTS measurements, showing that the ZnO-ZrO<sub>2</sub> interfaces are the active sites for CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption and conversion, while the presence of metallic Cu is also necessary to facilitate H<sub>2</sub> dissociation and to provide hydrogen resource. The combined experiment and DFT results reveal that tuning the interaction between ZnO and ZrO<sub>2</sub> can be considered as another important factor for designing high performance catalysts for methanol generation from CO<sub>2</sub>.