Enhancing CO 2 Hydrogenation to Methanol via Constructing Cu–ZnO–La 2 O 3 Interfaces

Catalytic conversion of CO 2 to methanol with H 2 from renewable energy has attracted increasing interest as a promising strategy for reducing excessive CO 2 emissions. However, the performance of reported various catalysts still suffers from low methanol yield with a passable CO 2 conversion. In this work, Cu–ZnO–La 2 O 3 interfaces are constructed with various La 2 O 3 mole ratio. Compared to Cu/ZnO, the optimized catalyst (i.e., Cu 0.6 Zn 0.2 La 0.4 ) exhibits a much higher mass-specific methanol formation rate (159.3 g MeOH /kg cat /h) at 240 °C and 3 MPa. A series of ex-situ and in-situ characterizations, such as X-ray diffractometer (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N 2 O titration measurements, and in-situ diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy ( in-situ DRIFTS) study, are used to investigate its structure and mechanism study. The dispersion of Cu over Cu/ZnO/La 2 O 3 catalyst is significantly enhanced, forming more Cu–ZnO–La 2 O 3 interfaces. LaO x species favor CO 2 activation and generate more carbon intermediates species for CO 2 hydrogenation. Furthermore, more Cu + is bonded, which stabilizes the key intermediate, inhibits its desorption, and facilitates its further hydrogenation to methanol. This work is expected to offer an effective strategy to develop new catalysts with high performance for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol. Graphical Abstract