Lattice-Confined Cu-TiO2 Catalysts with Significantly Improved Activity and Thermal Stability for CO2 Hydrogenation

Cu-based catalysts have shown promising prospects in the CO2 hydrogenation reaction but suffer from a significant sintering problem, especially under high temperatures and a reducing atmosphere. Herein, we propose a lattice confinement strategy to fabricate a highly dispersed and thermally stable Cu-TiO2 catalyst through a facile ion exchange and calcination reconstruction method. The intrinsic CH3OH formation rate for the optimal Cu-TiO2-600 catalyst reached 55.5 mmol gCu–1 h–1 at 240 °C and 3 MPa. The structural analysis demonstrated that the catalyst maintained an excellent Cu dispersion even at 400 °C and H2 conditions, which exhibited an outstanding sintering resistance property and achieved high activity and thermal stability for CO2 hydrogenation. This work could be potentially extended to construct other lattice-confined catalysts in a heterogeneous catalytic reaction.