In this work, we report a novel strategy to promote the industrial methanol production from CO2 hydrogenation at low pressure (12 bar) over a Pd/ZnO catalyst via introducing light irradiation into a modified continuous‐flow fixed‐bed reactor. The methanol yield was significantly enhanced by a photothermal synergistic effect and visible light was confirmed as the major contributor (>90 %) due to the localized surface plasmon resonance of Pd.

Cu@ZIF-8 derived inverse ZnO/Cu with sub-5 nm ZnO acts as an efficient catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol.

Cu–ZnO catalysts are widely studied for the direct hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol for high activity. However, despite the widespread research, promoting the intrinsic activity of active sites remains a contentious topic. We here report a facile strategy to manufacture ZnFe2O4 spinel-supported Cu catalysts with a tuneable size of Cu nanoparticles for selective methanol synthesis from CO2 hydrogenation. The optimized 33Cu/ZnFe-0.5 catalyst exhibits a high methanol selectivity of 71.6% at a CO2 conversion of 9.4% at 260 °C and 4.5 MPa. Increasing the Zn/Fe ratio decreases the selectivity of methanol at the same CO2 conversion and especially at lower CO2 conversions. The generation of extra Cu+ sites at Cu–spinel interfaces instead of Cu–ZnO x interfaces markedly inhibits the reverse water gas shift reaction during CO2 hydrogenation. The roles of Cu sites in methanol synthesis from CO2/H2 are that the Cu–ZnO interfaces act as the active sites for speeding up the production of methanol, while the Cu+ sites at the Cu–spinel interfaces act as synergy sites for improving the methanol selectivity and activity of each Cu–ZnO site.

No abstract