Application of Ceria in CO2 Conversion Catalysis

The growing threat of global climate change has received increasing attention in recent years. The conversion of CO2 to fuels and chemicals is vital for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and neutralizing the negative impacts of CO2 emissions on the environment. Various CO2 conversion routes have been proposed on the basis of heterogeneous catalysis. However, the development of a high-performance catalyst with satisfactory activity and selectivity remains challenging. In past decades, the role of ceria in activating CO2 under mild conditions has been widely demonstrated, which has inspired the design of novel heterogeneous catalysts and contributed to the extensive catalytic applications in CO2 conversion reactions. The applications of ceria have been studied in three groups of CO2 conversion reactions, including hydrogenation of CO2, activation of CO2 with alkanes, and nonreductive CO2 transformations. Investigations into these reactions show that CeO2 is a highly tunable material with great potential for CO2 catalysis due to its unique properties such as abundant oxygen vacancy and metal–support interaction. The catalytic performance of CeO2-based catalysts can be improved by various strategies including metal doping, forming mixed oxides or solid solution, as well as morphological control. Future works are proposed to address the challenges in current research and to further advance the CeO2-based catalysts in CO2 conversion reactions.