Plasmon‐Assisted Photothermal Catalysis of Low‐Pressure CO₂ Hydrogenation to Methanol over Pd/ZnO Catalyst

Abstract

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.

Fundamentals and applications of photo-thermal catalysis

“…200 As it could be expected, photo-thermal catalysis has also been tried as an alternative. 201 Experiments at different temperatures (190-270 1C) using a 3 : 1 H 2 : CO 2 ratio presented the best CO 2 conversion and CH 3 OH production rates when the system was irradiated with UV light (Hg lamp). More importantly, the use of only visible light also resulted in an important enhancement in catalytic activity compared to experiments performed in the dark.…”

Mechanistic Study of Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation over Pd/ZnO‐Based Catalysts: The Role of Palladium–Zinc Alloy in Selective Methanol Synthesis

“…[8][9][10] Among these Pd/ZnO catalysts, which show good activity and high selectivity to methanol, are of a great scientific interest. [11][12][13][14][15] In order to improve the performance of catalysts for methanol synthesis from carbon dioxide, an understanding of the reaction mechanism, and the structure of the active sites, is of a considerable importance. Under a hydrogen rich atmosphere and at elevated temperature (≥150 °C), Pd/ZnO is known to form a palladium-zinc alloy phase, which is considered as providing the active sites for various catalytic applications including methanol steam reforming, reverse water gas shift, and hydrogenation reactions.…”

Light-activated gas sensing: a perspective of integration with micro-LEDs and plasmonic nanoparticles

“…At the ZnO and Pd interface, the Schottky barrier should be formed due to work function difference, and this Schottky barrier blocks easy transfer of hot electrons generated from Pd nanoparticles through LSPR. 124 The oxygen vacancies can lower the energy barrier to bring generated hot electrons to ZnO nanorods for the photocatalytic oxygen adsorption and the light-activated CH4 sensing.…”