Cu2In Nanoalloy Enhanced Performance of Cu/ZrO2 Catalysts for the CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol

In this work, compared with non-Cu 2 In nanoalloy counterpart Cu-In/ZrO 2 catalysts, a Cu 1 In 2 Zr 4 -O catalyst with the structure of Cu 2 In alloy exhibited an excellent performance for CO 2 hydrogenation to CH 3 OH. CO 2 conversion (12.8%) and methanol selectivity (72.8%) were outstandingly higher, which indicated that the synergetic effect existed between Cu and In over the Cu 1 In 2 Zr 4 -O catalyst. The formation of Cu 2 In alloy caused high dispersion of the active species and high surface area of the Cu 1 In 2 Zr 4 -O catalyst, enhancing catalyst reduction performance. Strong adsorption of CO 2 caused a good conversion property of the Cu 1 In 2 Zr 4 -O catalyst. The strong interaction between the In and Cu species formed a nanoalloy and decreased the catalyst reduction temperature, which led to the high catalytic performance for CO 2 hydrogenation. The Cu 2 In alloy rather than metallic Cu was the key active site for the methanol formation.