Photo-assisted effective and selective reduction of CO to methanol on a Cu-ZnO-ZrO catalyst

• Published in: New journal of chemistry 2022-11, Vol.46 (44), p.21268-21277
• Main Authors: Wang, Jian, Qu, Xiuli, Djitcheu, Xavier, Meng, Qingrun, Ni, Zenan, Liu, Huimin, Zhang, Qijian
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/d2nj03441g

The emergence of the "double carbon" era indicates more significant concerns in CO 2 utilization. CO 2 to methanol conversion is one of the most promising methods for converting CO 2 , but its extensive application is restricted by harsh reaction conditions. A photo-assisted reaction is expected to effectively alleviate the harsh reaction conditions and exhibits high catalytic activity. In this work, the contribution of photo-assistance was investigated in the CO 2 reduction reaction over Cu-ZnO and Cu-ZnO-ZrO 2 catalysts. Cu-ZnO-ZrO 2 exhibits higher methanol selectivity (61.2%) than Cu-ZnO (34.2%), and methanol selectivity is further improved from 61.2% to 70.4% with the photo-assisted reaction. The superior performance of the Cu-ZnO-ZrO 2 catalyst is due to the generation of more oxygen vacancies (O v ) on the ZnO surface, which reduce the bandgap of the catalyst and change the conduction band (CB) position. The generation of electrons is promoted under light irradiation, making the catalyst more favorable for the reduction of CO 2 to methanol. Therefore, the effective reduction of CO 2 to methanol is feasible on the photo-assisted Cu-ZnO-ZrO 2 catalyst. Highly selective catalysis of CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol with photo-assistance on Cu-ZnO-ZrO 2 , a photothermal synergistic catalyst.