CO2 hydrogenation to methanol over Cu/TiO2 catalysts: The role of oxygen vacancies in CO2 activation

Title : CO2 hydrogenation to methanol over Cu/TiO2 catalysts: The role of oxygen vacancies in CO2 activation

Abstract:

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. In the last several decades, intensive efforts have been made to activate and convert CO2 through hydrogenation reactions to value-added chemicals, particularly through thermal catalysis. Various catalysts are applied for these reactions, including supported noble metal and nonnoble transition oxide catalysts. The representative catalysts are Cu-based catalysts, such as the Cu-ZnO-Al2O3 catalyst used in the industrial for CO hydrogenation. However, the Cu-based catalysts have several issues: the CO2 activation on them is quite difficult, and Cu is easily sintered. Also, it has been widely believed that the reducible metal oxides are not a good option for the supported Cu catalysts due to the strong Cu-support interaction, which often leads to the coverage of the Cu active particles by the oxide support in the catalysts. This work investigates the role of oxygen vacancy (Ov) in the Cu/TiO2 catalysts in the CO2 hydrogenation reaction to methanol. It is found that the Ov generated in TiO2 could facilitate CO2 activation and promote methanol formation. We also observed a strong metal interaction (SMSI) between Cu and TiO2, which retarded the Cu sintering. These findings provide insights into catalytic CO2 conversion and new ways to design and develop highly efficient catalysts for CO2 conversion.

Audience take-away:

• The audience will learn why and how we convert CO2 from the atmosphere into useful products through our experimental results.
• The knowledge and skills learned will help the audience to improve their research.
• Yes. CO2 conversion is quite a popular research topic these years. Many people are working in this area. The knowledge and findings to be reported will benefit many people's research and widen their version.

Biography:

Prof. Ziyi Zhong mainly works on heterogeneous catalysis, sonochemistry and wastewater treatment; he received his Ph.D. in 1995 from Nanjing University. Later, he did his post-doctoral research at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, the University of Washington, and the National University of Singapore sequentially for 5 years. From 2003 to 2018, he worked in the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences under A*STAR in Singapore; since 2018, he has been a full professor at Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT).