Asymmetric Sites on the ZnZrO Catalyst for Promoting Formate Formation and Transformation in CO₂ Hydrogenation

The role of formate species for CO₂ hydrogenation is still under debate. Although formate has been frequently observed and commonly proposed as the possible intermediate, there is no definite evidence for the reaction of formate species for methanol production. Here, formate formation and conversion over the ZnZrO solid solution catalyst are investigated by in situ/operando diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy-mass spectroscopy (DRIFTS-MS) coupled with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Spectroscopic results show that bidentate carbonate formed from CO₂ adsorption is hydrogenated to formate on Zn-O-Zr sites (asymmetric sites), where the Zn site is responsible for H₂ activation and the Zr site is beneficial for the stabilization of reaction intermediates. The asymmetric Zn-O-Zr sites with adjacent and inequivalent features on the ZnZrO catalyst promote not only formate formation but also its transformation. Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the origin of the excellent performance of the ZnZrO catalyst for methanol formation is associated with the H₂ heterolytic cleavage promoted by the asymmetric Zn and Zr sites.