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

Abstract

AbstractDevelopment 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 Cu4t/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.