CO2 hydrogenation to methanol over Cu/ZnO plate model catalyst: Effects of reducing gas induced Cu nanoparticle morphology

ZnO plate, dominantly exposed polar high energy (0 0 0 1) plane, was used to load Cu to build Cu/ZnO plate model catalyst. The catalyst was reduced in different atmospheres and then evaluated for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, quasi in situ X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, in situ UV-Raman, and CO 2 temperature programmed desorption characterizations have been carried out. The exploration results indicate that in situ tuning Cu nanoparticle (NP) morphology can be realized through varying reducing atmospheres. H 2 reduction induced the formation of small irregular spherical Cu NPs covered with large amount of migrated Zn, prompting CO 2 conversion and methanol synthesis . However, CO reduction induced the generation of ellipsoidal Cu NPs with medium size and low amount of migrated Zn, leading to poor catalytic performance for CO 2 hydrogenation. CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol displays apparent Cu NP morphology dependency over the Cu-ZnO based catalysts.