Distinctly different active sites of ZnO-ZrO2 catalysts in CO2 and CO hydrogenation to methanol reactions

-Zr-)-O-Zr-) is the active site for catalyzing the CO hydrogenation to methanol reaction. These results provide a reliable and effective methodology of elementary surface reaction kinetics for identifications of active sites of working catalysts in complex reactions and unveil how sensitively the active site structure varies with the catalyzed reaction.