CO₂ Hydrogenation to Methanol over In₂O₃ Decorated by Metals of the Iron Triad

The growing concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere is a serious problem, and efforts to counter this issue are thus highly important. One of the possible approaches to solving this problem is the conversion of waste CO₂ into products with added economic value. Methanol is one of these products with vast potential usage. In this study, indium oxide prepared by a simple precipitation method and modified by nanoparticles of metals from the iron triad were tested as possible catalysts to produce methanol by the method of CO₂ hydrogenation. The prepared catalysts demonstrated a strong dependence of their catalytic activity on used metal. The best selectivity for the production of CH₃OH was observed for the Fe/In₂O₃ catalyst at the value of 54.7% at 300 °C. However, due to the higher value of CO₂ conversion, the highest CH₃OH formation rate was observed at a value of 11.3 mmol/(h*g) at 300 °C for a composite of Ni/In₂O₃.