Highly selective conversion of CO2 to lower hydrocarbons (C2-C4) over bifunctional catalysts composed of In2O3-ZrO2 and zeolite

Although many researchers have reported CO 2 hydrogenation to various C1 chemicals, it is still challenging to directly and selectively convert CO 2 to C 2 -C 4 hydrocarbons in terms of overcoming the extreme inertness of CO 2 and a high C C coupling barrier. In the present work, we report an efficient integration of methanol-synthesis and the methanol-to-hydrocarbons with the bifunctional catalyst component of In 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 and SAPO-5. These tandem reactions exhibit an excellent relative selectivity of C 2 -C 4 (83%) with a suppressed CH 4 relative selectivity less than 3% at T = 300 °C. A detailed analysis indicates that the partially reduced indium oxide surface (In 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 ) can better activate CO 2 and promote the synthesis of methanol than In 2 O 3 alone, and C C coupling is subsequently manipulated within the confined acidic pores of SAPO-5 according to XRD, H 2 -TPR, CO 2 -TPD, SEM and TEM. Furthermore, the proximity of two components and the content of Si also play an important role in such outstanding selectivity to C 2 -C 4 . Our study paves a new path for the direct synthesis of lower hydrocarbons.