CeO2 hollow nanosphere for catalytic synthesis of dimethyl carbonate from CO2 and methanol: The effect of cavity effect on catalytic performance

Abstract

AbstractHollow nanosphere structure has a favorable catalytic performance in catalysis. Not only the large specific surface area, excellent mass transfer ability but also the special cavity structure. This particular structure was applied in the direct synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from CO2 and methanol. A series of CeO2 hollow spheres of varying sizes and shell numbers were fabricated via a facile hard template method. Large specific surface area and exposed active crystal planes gave it the favorable activity. It is also found that a region with high reactant concentration and high density of active sites can be formed inside the hollow spheres. A hollow sphere model was established to help explore the relationship between cavity structure and activity performance. By using dimensional model and function fitting methods, it is demonstrated that the catalytic activity is positively correlated with the number of active sites in per unit volume of the cavity.