Promotional Role of Oxygen Vacancy Defects and Cu-Ce Interfacial Sites on the Activity of Cu/CeO2 Catalyst for CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol

Development of novel catalyst for CO2 conversion to methanol is still a challenge. A series of Cu/CeO2 catalyst were prepared by changing the synthesis procedure. The Cu/CeO2 catalyst were prepared by co-precipitation, surfactant-assisted co-precipitation, and sol-gel methods for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol are documented. The performance of these catalysts was evaluated to elucidate the role of catalytic properties. The Cu/CeO2 catalyst synthesized by the sol-gel (Cu/CeO2-SG) method exhibited superior strong basic site density, Cu dispersion, and oxygen vacancy defects than co-precipitation method. A correlation between strong basic site density, oxygen vacancies, and methanol space time yield was established. Moreover, the promotional role of Cu-Ce interfacial sites on the reduced Cu-4t/CeO2(111) cluster in CO2 adsorption and activation has been reported by the DFT calculation. These experimental and theoretical results provide insights into Cu-CeO2 interaction and role of metal-support interactions in the CO2 hydrogenation reaction.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the development of Cu/CeO2 catalysts for CO2 conversion to methanol. Different synthesis methods were used to prepare the catalysts, and their performance was evaluated. The results show that the Cu/CeO2 catalyst synthesized by the sol-gel method exhibits superior catalytic properties compared to the co-precipitation method.