Direct hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to value-added aromatics

Aromatics are the important chemical building blocks with wide utilization and huge market demand. CO2 hydrogenation to value-added aromatics is a promising technology that not only reduces CO2 emission but also supplies essential chemicals for industry production. Despite numerous efforts in this field, many scientific questions on aromatics production from CO2 hydrogenation are still unanswered. This review gives a comprehensive overview on the recent achievements of CO2 direct hydrogenation to aromatics. The transition-metal catalysts and related synthesis methods are comprehensively summarized. The structure–activity relationships of catalysts targeting efficient CO2-to-aromatics conversion are discussed in detail, with a special emphasis on the acidity of zeolite and the proximity of two active components. The effects of reaction condition and catalyst stability during CO2-to-aromatics conversion are systematically reviewed. The in-depth reaction mechanisms governing activity, selectivity, and stability are fundamentally highlighted for accelerating the catalyst design of CO2 hydrogenation to aromatics, including the modified Fischer-Tropsch pathway and methanol-mediated pathway. In particular, the in-situ techniques and theoretical methods that are used to uncover the aromatization mechanism of CO2 hydrogenation are surveyed. Finally, we provide a brief perspective on the remaining challenges and opportunities for the development of CO2 direct hydrogenation technology.