Abstract:

Cu/ZrO₂ catalysts have demonstrated effective in hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol, during which the Cu-ZrO₂ interface plays a key role. Thus, maximizing the number of Cu-ZrO₂ interface active sites is an effective strategy to develop ideal catalysts. This can be achieved by controlling the active metal size and employing porous supports. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are valid candidates because of their rich, open-framework structures and tunable compositions. UiO-66 is a rigid metal-organic skeleton material with excellent hydrothermal and chemical stability that comprises Zr as the metal center and terephthalic acid (H₂BDC) as the organic ligand. Herein, porous UiO-66 was chosen as the ZrO₂ precursor, which can confine Cu nanoparticles within its pores/defects. As a result, we constructed a Cu-ZrO₂ nanocomposite catalyst with high activity for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol. Many active interfaces could form when the catalysts were calcined at a moderate temperature, and the active interface was optimized by adjusting the calcination temperature and active metal size. Furthermore, the Cu-ZrO₂ interface remained after CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), demonstrating the stability of the active interface. The catalyst structure and hydrogenation activity were influenced by the content of the active component and the calcination temperature; therefore, these parameters were explored to obtain an optimized catalyst. At 280 ℃ and 4.5 MPa, the optimized CZ-0.5-400 catalyst gave the highest methanol turnover frequency (TOF) of 13.4 h^-1 with a methanol space-time yield (STY) of 587.8 g·kg^-1·h^-1 (calculated per kilogram of catalyst, the same below), a CO₂ conversion of 12.6%, and a methanol selectivity of 62.4%. In situ diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) of CO adsorption over the optimized catalyst revealed a predominant, unreducible Cu⁺ species that was also identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The favorable activity observed was due to this abundant Cu⁺ species coming from the Cu⁺-ZrO₂ interface that served as the methanol synthesis active center and acted as a bridge for transporting hydrogen from the active Cu species to ZrO₂. In addition, the oxygen vacancies of ZrO₂ promoted the adsorption and activation of CO₂. These vacancies and Cu⁺ trapped in the ZrO₂ lattice are the active sites for methanol synthesis from CO₂ hydrogenation. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the catalyst before and after reaction revealed the stability of its structure, which was further verified by time-on-stream (TOS) tests. Furthermore, in situ DRIFTS and temperature-programmed surface reaction-mass spectroscopy (TPSR-MS) revealed the reaction mechanism of CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol, which followed an HCOO-intermediated pathway.

Key words: CO₂ hydrogenation, Methanol synthesis, Cu⁺-ZrO₂ interfaces, Cu/ZrO₂ catalysts, UiO-66