The hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol was
investigated
by means of the Cu/ZrO2 catalyst to analyze the effect
of reflux time on catalytic performance. A series of high-activity
Cu/ZrO2 catalysts were prepared by introducing the support
pretreated with ammonia reflux. The effect of reflux time on the structure
and performance of all catalysts was systematically studied. Combined
with various characterizations such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 physisorption, temperature-programmed reduction by H2 (H2-TPR), temperature-programmed desorption of
H2 and CO2, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
(XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), it can be seen
that the catalysts after reflux exhibited a stable amorphous structure
with more medium and strong basic sites. Moreover, the proportion
of defect oxygen and surface Cu+ species for Cu/ZrO2 catalysts increased, and the metal–support interaction
was strengthened, which effectively increased active sites and promoted
CO2 activation, and thus, the catalyst with stronger activity
and better stability was obtained. The CO2 conversion dramatically
increased by 4–5 times (from 5.4 to 22.1%) after reflux treatment,
and the Cu/ZrO2-18h catalyst had the highest catalytic
activity and a methanol space time yield of 394 gMeOH h–1 kgcat
–1 at 260 °C.