High-Performance and Long-Lived Cu/SiO2 Nanocatalyst for CO2 Hydrogenation

Cu-based nanocatalysts have been widely used for CO 2 hydrogenation, but their poor stability is the bottleneck for further industrial applications. A high-performance and long-lived Cu/SiO 2 nanocatalyst was synthesized by an ammonia-evaporation method for CO 2 hydrogenation. The conversion of CO 2 reaches up to 28%, which is close to the equilibrium conversion of CO 2 (30%), and the selectivity to methanol is 21.3%, which is much higher than the equilibrium selectivity (6.6%) at 320 °C and 3.0 MPa. Furthermore, after 120 h of evaluation, the conversion can be still maintained at a high value (27%), which is much better than a Cu/SiO 2 catalyst prepared by traditional impregnation. The Cu + species has been demonstrated to be the active component for the activation and conversion of CO 2 . The higher ratio of Cu + /(Cu 0 + Cu + ) and interaction between the metal and support deriving from copper phyllosilicate are mainly responsible for the high catalytic activity and excellent stability, respectively.