CO2 hydrogenation to methanol over hydrothermally synthesized Inx-Zry catalysts

In2O3-based catalysts are considered to be promising catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol, while ZrO2 exhibits a significant improvement of the catalytic activity of In2O3 catalysts. In this work, Inx-Zry mixed oxides catalysts were prepared by a hydrothermal method and tested for methanol synthesis from CO2 hydrogenation at 260–320 °C and 2–5 Mpa. The results showed that all Inx-Zry mixed oxides catalysts show superior catalytic performances than pure In2O3 due to the contribution of oxygen vacancies and the activation of CO2 by zirconia. Further investigation showed that the catalytic performance of Inx-Zry mixed oxide with the coexistence of In-VO-In and In-VO-Zr sites is better than that of In4Zr6Ox-CP solid solution which only possesses single In-VO-Zr sites, due to the higher oxygen vacancy content and stronger electronic interactions between In and Zr species.