Study on the effects of Nd-doping on the performance of Cu-based CO2 hydrogenation catalysts with different oxide supports

To enhance the activity and selectivity of Cu-based catalysts in the CO 2 hydrogenation reaction, this study systematically investigated the regulation effect of Nd-doping on the structure and surface properties of different oxide support (MgO, Al 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 , and CeO 2 ), and further explored its influence on the state of Cu species as well as the catalytic performance in CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol. The results show that the introduction of Nd 3 + can effectively induce lattice distortion of the support which promotes the generation of oxygen vacancies and the formation of surface basic sites, thereby enhancing the interfacial electronic interaction between Cu and support and improving the stability of Cu + active centers. Among them, the Cu catalyst supported on Nd-doped ZrO 2 exhibited the best catalytic performance such as the high CO 2 conversion and selectivity to methanol. Various characterization (XRD, SEM, in-situ XPS, H 2 -TPR, CO 2 -TPD, and H 2 -TPD) results confirmed the key role of Nd-doping in regulating the oxygen defects, electronic structure, and Cu species distribution over support. This study reveals the structural regulation mechanism of Nd in constructing efficient Cu-based catalysts for CO 2 hydrogenation from the perspective of support engineering, providing theoretical basis and practical guidance for the design of new high-performance catalytic materials.