A quasi-stable molybdenum sub-oxide with abundant oxygen vacancies that promotes CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol.

ABSTRACT: Production of methanol from anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a promising chemical process that can alleviate both the environmental burden and the dependence on fossil fuels. In catalytic CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol, reduction of CO₂ to intermediate species is generally considered to be a crucial step. It is of great significance to design and develop advanced heterogeneous catalysts and to engineer the surface structures to promote CO₂-to-methanol conversion. We herein report an oxygen-defective molybdenum sub-oxide coupled with Pt nanoparticles (Pt/H _x MoO_3-y ) which affords high methanol yield with a methanol formation rate of 1.53 mmol g_-cat ^-1 h^-1 in liquid-phase CO₂ hydrogenation under relatively mild reaction conditions (total 4.0 MPa, 200 °C), outperforming other oxide-supported Pt catalysts in terms of both the yield and selectivity for methanol. Experiments and comprehensive analyses including in situ X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that both abundant surface oxygen vacancies (V_O) and the redox ability of Mo species in quasi-stable H _x MoO_3-y confer the catalyst with enhanced adsorption and activation capability to subsequently transform CO₂ to methanol. Moreover, the Pt NPs act as H₂ dissociation sites to regenerate oxygen vacancies and as hydrogenation sites for the CO intermediate to finally afford methanol. Based on the experimental and computational studies, an oxygen-vacancy-mediated "reverse Mars-van Krevelen (M-vK)" mechanism is proposed. This study affords a new strategy for the design and development of an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for CO₂ conversion.

SUBMITTER: Kuwahara Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8317622 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature