Yttria-doped Cu/ZnO catalyst with excellent performance for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol

Abstract Revealing the origin of the enhanced performance on yttria (Y2O3) promoted Cu/ZnO based catalyst for methanol synthesis via CO2 hydrogenation is still challenging. To shed light upon the promotion effect of Y2O3 modifier on binary Cu/ZnO catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation reaction, a ternary Cu/ZnO/Y2O3 catalyst was synthesized via a citric acid coordination-assisted strategy. The developed Cu/ZnO/Y2O3 catalyst exhibited a remarkably higher Weight-time yeild of methanol (236.8 gMeOH gcat−1∙h − 1) and methanol selectivity (81.1%) in comparison to Cu/ZnO catalyst (159.6 gMeOH gcat−1∙h − 1 and 73.9%, respectively). Various characterizations results have uncovered the enhanced catalytic activity of Cu/ZnO/Y2O3 catalyst for methanol synthesis was associated with small size and highly dispersed Cu species and abundant surface adsorption sites as well as more Cu-ZnO interfaces with strong interaction. Moreover, the Cu/ZnO/Y2O3 catalyst displayed a superior weight-time yield of methanol with a time-on-stream of 100 h in comparison with classic Cu/ZnO catalyst. We anticipate that this basic design strategy will provide a novel alternative to expand opportunities to explore scalable, cost-effective catalysts for industrial methanol synthesis.