Development of CO2-to-Methanol Hydrogenation Catalyst by Focusing on the Coordination Structure of the Cu Species in Spinel-Type Oxide Mg1–xCuxAl2O4

Cu-based high-entropy two-dimensional oxide as stable and active photothermal catalyst

Cu-based nanocatalysts are the cornerstone of various industrial catalytic processes. Synergistically strengthening the catalytic stability and activity of Cu-based nanocatalysts is an ongoing challenge. Herein, the high-entropy principle is applied to modify the structure of Cu-based nanocatalysts, and a PVP templated method is invented for generally synthesizing six-eleven dissimilar elements as high-entropy two-dimensional (2D) materials. Taking 2D Cu₂Zn₁Al_0.5Ce₅Zr_0.5O_x as an example, the high-entropy structure not only enhances the sintering resistance from 400 °C to 800 °C but also improves its CO₂ hydrogenation activity to a pure CO production rate of 417.2 mmol g^-1 h^-1 at 500 °C, 4 times higher than that of reported advanced catalysts. When 2D Cu₂Zn₁Al_0.5Ce₅Zr_0.5O_x are applied to the photothermal CO₂ hydrogenation, it exhibits a record photochemical energy conversion efficiency of 36.2%, with a CO generation rate of 248.5 mmol g^-1 h^-1 and 571 L of CO yield under ambient sunlight irradiation. The high-entropy 2D materials provide a new route to simultaneously achieve catalytic stability and activity, greatly expanding the application boundaries of photothermal catalysis.

Quantitative In Situ Monitoring of Cu-Atom Release by Cu2O Nanocatalysts under Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction Conditions: New Insights into the Photocorrosion Mechanism

Cu₂O is among the most promising photocatalysts for CO₂ reduction, however its photocorrosion remains a standalone challenge. Herein, we present an in situ study of the release of Cu ions from Cu₂O nanocatalysts under photocatalytic conditions in the presence of HCO₃ as a catalytic substrate in H₂O. The Cu-oxide nanomaterials were produced by Flame Spray Pyrolysis (FSP) technology. Using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy in tandem with analytical Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (ASV), we monitored in situ the Cu²⁺ atom release from the Cu₂O nanoparticles in comparison with CuO nanoparticles under photocatalytic conditions. Our quantitative, kinetic data show that light has detrimental effect on the photocorrosion of Cu₂O and ensuing Cu²⁺ ion release in the H₂O solution, up to 15.7% of its mass. EPR reveals that HCO₃ acts as a ligand of the Cu²⁺ ions, promoting the liberation of {HCO₃-Cu} complexes in solution from Cu₂O, up to 27% of its mass. HCO₃ alone exerted a marginal effect. XRD data show that under prolonged irradiation, part of Cu²⁺ ions can reprecipitate on the Cu₂O surface, creating a passivating CuO layer that stabilizes the Cu₂O from further photocorrosion. Including isopropanol as a hole scavenger has a drastic effect on the photocorrosion of Cu₂O nanoparticles and suppresses the release of Cu²⁺ ions to the solution. Methodwise, the present data exemplify that EPR and ASV can be useful tools to help quantitatively understand the solid-solution interface photocorrosion phenomena for Cu₂O.

Oxygenated Hydrocarbons from Catalytic Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide

Once fundamental difficulties such as active sites and selectivity are fully resolved, metal-free catalysts such as 3D graphene or carbon nanotubes (CNT) are very cost-effective substitutes for the expensive noble metals used for catalyzing CO2. A viable method for converting environmental wastes into useful energy storage or industrial wealth, and one which also addresses the environmental and energy problems brought on by emissions of CO2, is CO2 hydrogenation into hydrocarbon compounds. The creation of catalytic compounds and knowledge about the reaction mechanisms have received considerable attention. Numerous variables affect the catalytic process, including metal–support interaction, metal particle sizes, and promoters. CO2 hydrogenation into different hydrocarbon compounds like lower olefins, alcoholic composites, long-chain hydrocarbon composites, and fuels, in addition to other categories, have been explained in previous studies. With respect to catalyst design, photocatalytic activity, and the reaction mechanism, recent advances in obtaining oxygenated hydrocarbons from CO2 processing have been made both through experiments and through density functional theory (DFT) simulations. This review highlights the progress made in the use of three-dimensional (3D) nanomaterials and their compounds and methods for their synthesis in the process of hydrogenation of CO2. Recent advances in catalytic performance and the conversion mechanism for CO2 hydrogenation into hydrocarbons that have been made using both experiments and DFT simulations are also discussed. The development of 3D nanomaterials and metal catalysts supported on 3D nanomaterials is important for CO2 conversion because of their stability and the ability to continuously support the catalytic processes, in addition to the ability to reduce CO2 directly and hydrogenate it into oxygenated hydrocarbons.

A Review on Green Hydrogen Valorization by Heterogeneous Catalytic Hydrogenation of Captured CO2 into Value-Added Products

The catalytic hydrogenation of captured CO2 by different industrial processes allows obtaining liquid biofuels and some chemical products that not only present the interest of being obtained from a very low-cost raw material (CO2) that indeed constitutes an environmental pollution problem but also constitute an energy vector, which can facilitate the storage and transport of very diverse renewable energies. Thus, the combined use of green H2 and captured CO2 to obtain chemical products and biofuels has become attractive for different processes such as power-to-liquids (P2L) and power-to-gas (P2G), which use any renewable power to convert carbon dioxide and water into value-added, synthetic renewable E-fuels and renewable platform molecules, also contributing in an important way to CO2 mitigation. In this regard, there has been an extraordinary increase in the study of supported metal catalysts capable of converting CO2 into synthetic natural gas, according to the Sabatier reaction, or in dimethyl ether, as in power-to-gas processes, as well as in liquid hydrocarbons by the Fischer-Tropsch process, and especially in producing methanol by P2L processes. As a result, the current review aims to provide an overall picture of the most recent research, focusing on the last five years, when research in this field has increased dramatically.

Efficient Role of Nanosheet-Like Pr2O3 Induced Surface-Interface Synergistic Structures over Cu-Based Catalysts for Enhanced Methanol Production from CO2 Hydrogenation

In a complex heterogeneous metal-catalyzed reaction process, unique cooperative effects between metal sites and surface-interface active sites, as well as favorable synergy between surface-interface active sites, can play crucial roles in improving their catalytic performances. In this work, a ZnO-modified Cu-based catalyst over defect-rich Pr₂O₃ nanosheets for high-efficiency CO₂ hydrogenation to produce methanol was successfully constructed. It was demonstrated that an as-fabricated nanosheet-like Cu-based catalyst presented several structural advantages including the formation of highly dispersive Cu⁰ sites and the coexistence of abundant defective Pr³⁺-V_o-Pr³⁺ structures (V_o: oxygen vacancy) and interfacial Cu-O-Pr sites. Combining structural characterization and catalytic reaction results with density functional theory calculations, it was clearly unveiled that the synergy between surface defective structures and Cu-Pr₂O₃ interfaces over the catalyst remarkably promoted the adsorption of CO₂ and CO intermediate, thus boosting the CO₂ hydrogenation simultaneously via both the formate intermediate pathway and the intense reverse water-gas shift reaction-derived CO hydrogenation pathway, along with a high space-time yield of methanol of 0.395 g_MeOH·g_cat^-1·h^-1 under mild reaction conditions (260 °C and 3.0 MPa). The study provides a new strategy to construct high-performance Cu-based catalysts for high-efficiency CO₂ hydrogenation to produce methanol and a deep understanding of the promotional roles of synergy between surface-interface active sites in the CO₂ hydrogenation.

Machine Learning-Driven High-Throughput Screening of Alloy-Based Catalysts for Selective CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol

The revolutionary development of machine learning and data science and exploration of its application in material science are huge achievements of the scientific community in the past decade. In this work, we have reported an efficient approach of machine learning-aided high-throughput screening for finding selective earth-abundant high-entropy alloy-based catalysts for CO₂ to methanol formation using a machine learning algorithm and microstructure model. For this, we have chosen earth-abundant Cu, Co, Ni, Zn, and Mg metals to form various alloy-based compositions (bimetallic, trimetallic, tetrametallic, and high-entropy alloys) for selective CO₂ reduction reaction toward CH₃OH. Since there are several possible surface microstructures for different alloys, we have used machine learning along with DFT calculations for high-throughput screening of the catalysts. In this study, the stability of various 8-atom fcc periodic (111) surface unit cells has been calculated using the atomic-size difference factor (δ) as well as the ratio taken from Gibbs free energy of mixing (Ω). Thinking about the simplicity and accuracy, microstructure models by considering the neighboring atoms of the adsorption sites and others as Cu atoms have been considered for different adsorption sites (on-top, bridge, and hollow-hcp). Moreover, the adsorption energies of the *H, *O, *CO, *HCO, *H₂CO, and *H₃CO intermediates have been predicted using the best fitted algorithm of the training set. The predicted adsorption energies have been screened based on the pure Cu adsorption energy. Furthermore, the screened catalysts have been correlated among different adsorption site microstructures. At the end, we were able to find seven active catalysts, among which two catalysts are CuCoNiZn-based tetrametallic, three catalysts are CuNiZn-based trimetallic, and two catalysts are CuCoZn-based trimetallic alloys. Hence, this work demonstrates not an ultimate but an efficient approach for finding new product-selective catalysts, and we expect that it can be convenient for other similar types of reactions in forthcoming days.