Plasma-catalytic
CO
2
hydrogenation is a complex chemical
process combining plasma-assisted gas-phase and surface reactions.
Herein, we investigated CO
2
hydrogenation over Pd/ZnO and
ZnO in a tubular dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor at ambient
pressure. Compared to the CO
2
hydrogenation using Plasma
Only or Plasma + ZnO, placing Pd/ZnO in the DBD almost doubled the
conversion of CO
2
(36.7%) and CO yield (35.5%). The reaction
pathways in the plasma-enhanced catalytic hydrogenation of CO
2
were investigated by
in situ
Fourier transform
infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy using a novel integrated
in situ
DBD/FTIR gas cell reactor, combined with online mass spectrometry
(MS) analysis, kinetic analysis, and emission spectroscopic measurements.
In plasma CO
2
hydrogenation over Pd/ZnO, the hydrogenation
of adsorbed surface CO
2
on Pd/ZnO is the dominant reaction
route for the enhanced CO
2
conversion, which can be ascribed
to the generation of a ZnO
x
overlay as
a result of the strong metal–support interactions (SMSI) at
the Pd–ZnO interface and the presence of abundant H species
at the surface of Pd/ZnO; however, this important surface reaction
can be limited in the Plasma + ZnO system due to a lack of active
H species present on the ZnO surface and the absence of the SMSI.
Instead, CO
2
splitting to CO, both in the plasma gas phase
and on the surface of ZnO, is believed to make an important contribution
to the conversion of CO
2
in the Plasma + ZnO system.