CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol on tungsten-doped Cu/CeO₂ catalysts

• Main Authors: Yan, Yong, Wong, Roong Jien, Ma, Zhirui, Donat, Felix, Xi, Shibo, Syed Saqline, Fan, Qianwenhao, Du, Yonghua, Borgna, Armando, He, Qian, Müller, Christoph R., Chen, Wei, Lapkin, Alexei A., Liu, Wen
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Chemical engineering; Methanol; CO₂
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/155652
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol depends significantly on the structures of metal-oxide interfaces. We show that doping a high-valency metal, viz. tungsten, to CeO2 could render improved catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of CO2 on a Cu/CeW0.25Ox catalyst, whilst making it more selective towards methanol than the undoped Cu/CeO2. We experimentally investigated and elucidated the structural-functional relationship of the Cu/CeO2 interface for CO2 hydrogenation. The promotional effects are attributed to the irreversible reduction of Ce4+ to Ce3+ by W-doping, the suppression of the formation of redox-active oxygen vacancies on CeO2, and the activation of the formate pathway for CO2 hydrogenation. This catalyst design strategy differs fundamentally from those commonly used for CeO2-supported catalysts, in which oxygen vacancies with high redox activity are considered desirable.