A novel microreaction strategy to fabricate superior hybrid zirconium and zinc oxides for methanol synthesis from CO2

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.apcata.2020.117507

The synergetic interaction of solid solutions plays important roles in the reaction efficiency of CO₂ hydrogenation, which is used to produce methanol. The effects of material mixing, impregnation, traditional coprecipitation, and microreaction synthesis on the structural and catalytic properties of ZnO/t-ZrO₂ hybrid oxides were investigated. Although the impregnation effect caused a certain electronic structural modulation at the Zn/Zr interface, the pore structure blocking effect and low number of oxygen vacancy defects leaded to a low catalytic reaction efficiency. The solid solution structure enhanced the Zn/Zr interfacial interaction and increased the electron binding energy. More importantly, many oxygen vacancy defects were formed, which promoted CO₂ activation. However, the solid solution structure was more affected by the preparation method. The solid solution formed from the microreaction exhibited excellent catalytic activity, thermal stability and regeneration performance due to a more uniform solid solution structure and abundant oxygen vacancy defects. The CO₂ conversion rate, methanol selectivity, and methanol space-time yield (STY) under the conditions of H₂/CO₂ = 3:1, 320 °C, 3 MPa, GHSV = 12,000 ml g^?1 h^?1 reached 9.2 %, 93.1 %, and 0.35 g_MeOH h^?1g_cat^?1, respectively.