Facile and Low‐Cost Preparation of CeO 2 by Direct Calcination of Cerium Acetate for Efficient Catalytic Conversion of Glycerol and CO 2 to Glycerol Carbonate

ABSTRACT A simple and economical strategy for preparing CeO 2 was developed via direct calcination of cerium acetate, and it was employed as a catalyst for glycerol carbonate (GC) synthesis from glycerol (GL) and CO 2 . This method requires no extra reagents, significantly simplifies the procedure, and offers low cost and short turnaround times. The effects of calcination temperature on the catalytic performance of CeO 2 were systematically investigated. The results demonstrated that calcination temperature affected the specific surface area, surface Ce valence, oxygen vacancy (Ov) content, and distribution of basic sites with varying strengths. Among these factors, the specific surface area did not significantly influence its catalytic performance, while the Ov concentration and the distribution of basic sites did affect GC synthesis. Specifically, the total basicity and Ov content primarily affected GL conversion, while the amount of medium‐strong, strong basic sites affected GC selectivity. Additionally, both the heating rate and calcination time also influenced the catalytic performance. When the calcination temperature was 700°C, heating rate was 10°C/min and the calcination time was 4 h, the CeO 2 had better catalytic performance, achieving 69.8% GL conversion and 92.4% GC selectivity.