Direct Conversion of CO₂ to Ethanol Boosted by Intimacy-Sensitive Multifunctional Catalysts

It is still a challenge to realize highly efficient conversion of CO2 to a single target chemical. Herein, substantial progress has been made, both in catalyst design and reaction route exploration, for the direct conversion of CO2 to ethanol. An alkene synthesis Na-Fe@C catalyst was integrated with another potassium-doped methanol synthesis CuZnAl catalyst to realize the direct conversion of CO2 (39.2%) to ethanol (35.0%) selectively, accompanied by some useful alkene formation (33.0%). More in-depth in situ characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggested that the unique catalytic interfaces, intimacy modes of the multifunctional catalysts, as well as the intermediate of aldehyde species played vital roles in the higher conversion rate of CO2 to ethanol. Moreover, the multifunctional catalyst is easy to fabricate, regenerate, and recycle, being very close to the real industry application. Therefore, this work is promising to enrich the horizon of the economical utilization of CO2 for renewable chemical synthesis.