Presently, the production of energy is bound to the combustion of finite resources associated with social and environmental issues. Chief among these issues is the rapid increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. CO2 can be converted into CO via reverse water gas shift (RWGS), which can then be incorporated i3nto the Fischer-Tropsch process to produce gasoline. Alternatively, CO2 can undergo hydrogenation to methanol at high pressure and moderate temperatures. The majority of current methanol production proceeds over Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts from synthesis gas. The formation of an atomically ordered β-PdZn alloy represents an alternative active site for methanol synthesis. Conversely, metallic Pd0 is the active site at which the RWGS reaction occurs. We show that using sol immobilisation deposition of controllable colloidal Pd on zinc oxide supports can be used to explore the influence of particle diameter on activity. Previously we showed this synthesis technique produced Pd/ZnO selective to methanol once the tetragonal β-PdZn alloy formed (Fig. 1).1 Here we extend this study and discuss the use Pd-Au colloids, deposited as bimetallic nanoparticles, through sol immobilisation to control the methanol selectivity, potentially with trimetallic nanoparticles with CO2 hydrogenation at 230, 250 and 270 °C (Fig. 1). The high level of control afforded using a colloidal deposition technique with poly-vinyl alcohol is advantageous to methanol selectivity.

Supporting colloidal nanoparticles for catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation.

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.