Fabrication of PdZn alloy catalysts supported on ZnFe composite oxide for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol

The conversion of CO₂ to methanol is of great significance for providing a means of CO₂ fixation and the development of future fuels. Supported Pd catalysts have been demonstrated to be active for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol and PdZn alloy plays a key role in this reaction. Therefore, using ZnO-enriched support to increase the amount of nanometric PdZn alloy particles on the surface is an effective strategy to develop ideal catalysts. Herein, we fabricated a PdZn alloy catalyst supported on ZnO-enriched ZnFe₂O₄ spinel for efficient CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol. The amount of formed PdZn alloy and catalyst structure influenced by ZnO concentration on ZnFe₂O₄ were explored to obtain the best Pd-Z₁FO catalyst, which achieves a methanol space-time yield (STY) of 593 gkg_cat^-1h^-1 (12 gg_Pd^-1h^-1) with CO₂ conversion of 14% under reaction conditions of 290 °C, 4.5 MPa and 21600 mLg^-1h^-1. Furthermore, the amount of exposed PdZn alloy sites were measured by using CO-pulse chemisorption and we find a linearity between methanol production rate and PdZn alloy sites.