A breakthrough in the research of carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol synthesis

Recently, the research group of Professor Liu Changjun of the School of Chemical Engineering of Tianjin University studied the feasibility of applying indium oxide-supported silver catalyst to methanol from carbon dioxide hydrogenation through density functional theory, and theoretically determined the reaction conversion pathway and used it.
Experiments have proved the theoretical prediction results, and a breakthrough has been made in the experiments of the high activity and high selectivity of carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol on the supported silver catalyst
.

In the context of carbon neutrality, how to efficiently convert carbon dioxide has become the focus of attention of chemists
.

Among the possible chemical reactions, the most promising one for large-scale applications is the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol

Silver catalysts have been used to study photocatalysis and electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide
.

However, no studies have confirmed its high activity for the selective hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol

Liu Changjun introduced that since 2013, they and their collaborators have verified through theoretical calculations and experiments that indium oxide containing oxygen vacancies and its supported metal catalysts such as palladium, platinum, gold, nickel, rhodium, and iridium can hydrogenate carbon dioxide to form methanol.
It has high methanol selectivity and high activity, and the indium oxide supported metal catalyst also has good stability
.

The application of indium oxide-supported silver catalyst to the reaction of heterogeneous carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol has not been reported yet

In this new study, the research group of indium oxide Liuchang Jun partners focused on metal silver catalyst, of silver and indium oxide by binding modulation, so that of Ag / the In ₂ O ₃ catalyst to carbon dioxide Hydrogenation Highly active catalyst
.

In ₂ O ₃

The researchers first analyzed the interaction between silver and the surface of indium oxide containing oxygen vacancies through density functional theory calculations
.

The calculation results found that the interface site between the two can well activate the carbon dioxide molecule, making it easier for hydrogenation reactions to occur at this site

Based on the results of theoretical calculations, the researchers used the deposition precipitation method to prepare the Ag/ In ₂ O ₃ catalyst, and compared it with the indium oxide catalyst to evaluate the reaction activity
.

The comparison results show that the addition of silver improves the ability of carbon dioxide hydrogenation to generate methanol, and significantly reduces the apparent activation energy of its conversion

In ₂ O ₃ In ₂ O ₃ In ₂ O ₃

In addition, characterization experiments have also confirmed that the addition of silver can promote the generation of surface oxygen vacancies, thereby increasing the number of oxygen vacancy sites and promoting the adsorption and dissociation process of carbon dioxide
.

The researchers expressed the hope that this work will provide guidance for the rational design of highly selective indium oxide-based catalysts