Directly synthesis of dimethyl carbonate from CO2 and methanol over UiO-66 @CeO2 Catalyst

In this study, UiO-66 @CeO2 composites was prepared by loading CeO2 nanoparticles on the surface of UiO-66 using precipitation method, and the effect of CeO2 loading on the catalytic direct reaction of CO2 and methanol into dimethyl carbonate (DMC) was investigated. XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, FT-IR, XPS, SEM and TEM were used to investigate the physical and chemical properties of UiO-66 @CeO2. The results showed that the framework structure of UiO-66 benefit the high dispersion of CeO2, while the loading of CeO2 provided more oxygen vacancies, which promoted the capture and absorb of CO2, thus promoted the reaction synergistically. Among which, UiO-66 @CeO2-60 showed best activity, with the highest DMC formation rate of 2.84 mmol·g−1·h−1 (yield: 2.27%) within 4 h of reaction time under the optimum conditions. In addition, the catalyst also showed favorable reusability, maintaining ∼90% of catalytic efficiency with 4 reuse cycles compared the fresh ones.