Inverse ZrO2/Cu as a highly efficient methanol synthesis catalyst from CO2 hydrogenation

Enhancing the intrinsic activity and space time yield of Cu based heterogeneous methanol synthesis catalysts through CO2 hydrogenation is one of the major topics in CO2 conversion into value-added liquid fuels and chemicals. Here we report inverse ZrO2/Cu catalysts with a tunable Zr/Cu ratio have been prepared via an oxalate co-precipitation method, showing excellent performance for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. Under optimal condition, the catalyst composed by 10% of ZrO2 supported over 90% of Cu exhibits the highest mass-specific methanol formation rate of 524 gMeOHkgcat−1h−1 at 220 °C, 3.3 times higher than the activity of traditional Cu/ZrO2 catalysts (159 gMeOHkgcat−1h−1). In situ XRD-PDF, XAFS and AP-XPS structural studies reveal that the inverse ZrO2/Cu catalysts are composed of islands of partially reduced 1–2 nm amorphous ZrO2 supported over metallic Cu particles. The ZrO2 islands are highly active for the CO2 activation. Meanwhile, an intermediate of formate adsorbed on the Cu at 1350 cm−1 is discovered by the in situ DRIFTS. This formate intermediate exhibits fast hydrogenation conversion to methoxy. The activation of CO2 and hydrogenation of all the surface oxygenate intermediates are significantly accelerated over the inverse ZrO2/Cu configuration, accounting for the excellent methanol formation activity observed.