Hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol over Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts

A series of Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts with 1–3 wt% Au and 30 wt% CuO were successfully prepared for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol by chemical reduction and the following impregnation. The influence of Au content on the physicochemical properties of Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts was investigated in terms of ICP-AES, N 2 physisorption, XRD, TEM, N 2 O titration, XPS and H 2 –TPR technique. The results showed that the as-prepared Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts exhibited higher catalytic activity than CuO/SBA-15 catalyst. 2 % Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalyst showed the best catalytic activity with 13.5 % methanol selectivity and 24.2 % CO 2 conversion for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol. The addition of Au NPs played an important role in improving the catalytic activity for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol, which may be attributed to the interaction between Au and CuO.