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

In this work, compared with non-Cu₂In nanoalloy counterpart Cu-In/ZrO₂ catalysts, a Cu₁In₂Zr₄-O catalyst with the structure of Cu₂In alloy exhibited an excellent performance for CO₂ hydrogenation to CH₃OH. CO₂ conversion (12.8%) and methanol selectivity (72.8%) were outstandingly higher, which indicated that the synergetic effect existed between Cu and In over the Cu₁In₂Zr₄-O catalyst. The formation of Cu₂In alloy caused high dispersion of the active species and high surface area of the Cu₁In₂Zr₄-O catalyst, enhancing catalyst reduction performance. Strong adsorption of CO₂ caused a good conversion property of the Cu₁In₂Zr₄-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 CO₂ hydrogenation. The Cu₂In alloy rather than metallic Cu was the key active site for the methanol formation.