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Construction of a "net‐zero‐emission" system through CO2 hydrogenation to methanol with solar energy is an eco‐friendly way to mitigate the greenhouse effect. Traditional CO2 hydrogenation demands centralized mass production for cost reduction with mass water electrolysis for hydrogen supply. To achieve continuous reaction with intermittent and fluctuating flow of H2 on a small‐scale for distributed application scenarios, modulating the catalyst interface environment and chemical adsorption capacity to adapt fluctuating reaction conditions is highly desired. This paper describes a distributed clean CO2 utilization system in which the surface structure of catalysts is carefully regulated. The Ni catalyst with unsaturated electrons loaded on In2O3 can reduce the dissociation energy of H2 to overcome the slow response of intermittent H2 supply, exhibiting a faster response (12 min) than bare oxide catalysts (42 min). Moreover, the introduction of Ni enhances the sensitivity of the catalyst to hydrogen, yielding a Ni/In2O3 catalyst with a good performance at lower H2 concentrations with a 15 times adaptability for wider hydrogen fluctuation range than In2O3, greatly reducing the negative impact of unstable H2 supplies derived from renewable energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction of a "net‐zero‐emission" system through CO2 hydrogenation to methanol with solar energy is an eco‐friendly way to mitigate the greenhouse effect. Traditional CO2 hydrogenation demands centralized mass production for cost reduction with mass water electrolysis for hydrogen supply. To achieve continuous reaction with intermittent and fluctuating flow of H2 on a small‐scale for distributed application scenarios, modulating the catalyst interface environment and chemical adsorption capacity to adapt fluctuating reaction conditions is highly desired. This paper describes a distributed clean CO2 utilization system in which the surface structure of catalysts is carefully regulated. The Ni catalyst with unsaturated electrons loaded on In2O3 can reduce the dissociation energy of H2 to overcome the slow response of intermittent H2 supply, exhibiting a faster response (12 min) than bare oxide catalysts (42 min). Moreover, the introduction of Ni enhances the sensitivity of the catalyst to hydrogen, yielding a Ni/In2O3 catalyst with a good performance at lower H2 concentrations with a 15 times adaptability for wider hydrogen fluctuation range than In2O3, greatly reducing the negative impact of unstable H2 supplies derived from renewable energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing renewable energy to hydrogenate carbon dioxide into fuels eliminates massive CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and diminishes our need for using fossil fuels. This review presents the most recent developments for designing heterogeneous catalysts for the hydrogenation of CO2 to formate, methanol, and C2+ hydrocarbons. Thermodynamic challenges and mechanistic insights are discussed, providing a strong foundation to propose a suitable catalyst. The main body of this review focuses on nanostructured catalysts for constructing efficient heterogeneous systems. The most important factors affecting catalytic performance are highlighted, including active metals, supports and promoters that can potentially be used. The summary of the results and the outlook are presented in the final section. During the past few decades, heterogeneous CO2 hydrogenation has gained much attention and made tremendous progress. Thus, many highly efficient catalysts have been studied to discover their active sites and provide mechanistic insights. This paper summarizes recent advances in CO2 hydrogenation and its conversion into various hydrocarbons such as formate, methanol, and C2+ products. As for formate production, Au and Ru nanocatalysts show superior activity. However, considering the catalyst cost, Cu‐based catalysts have an excellent prospect for methanol production, among other catalysts. Ultra‐small nanoparticles and nanoclusters appear promising to provide highly active cost‐effective catalysts. A growing number of researchers are investigating the possibility of directly synthesizing C2+ products through CO2 hydrogenation. The major challenge in producing heavy hydrocarbons is breaking the ASF limitations, which have been achieved over bifunctional catalysts using zeolites. Using suitable support and promoter can lead to a superior activity, ascribed to structural, electronic, and chemical promotional effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: carbon dioxide; hydrogenation; Cu-based catalyst; hydrogen enrichment; ethylene carbonate EN carbon dioxide hydrogenation Cu-based catalyst hydrogen enrichment ethylene carbonate 3599 3599 1 07/23/20 20200721 NES 200721 The Cover Feature shows a nanoflower-like Cu/SiO SB 2 sb catalyst of H SB 2 sb -enrichment capacity used for the hydrogenation of ethylene carbonate (EC) derived from CO SB 2 sb to produce methanol and ethylene glycol. In their Full Paper, M. Zhang, Y. Yang et al. synthesized the nanoflower-like copper catalysts with open-ended fibers and well-dispersed active species via one-step hydrolysis precipitation method. Carbon dioxide, hydrogenation, Cu-based catalyst, hydrogen enrichment, ethylene carbonate. [Extracted from the article]

The Front Cover shows the production of formic acid from CO2 and H2 by a ternary hybrid catalyst composed of an Ir complex, poly(ethyleneimine) and titanate nanotubes (TNTs).In their Full Paper, Y. Kuwahara et al. demonstrate that immobilization of a poly(ethyleneimine)‐tethered Ir complex catalyst inside the cavity space of TNTs can afford efficient catalysts with both improved activity and reusability, owing to the CO2 adsorption capacity of poly(ethyleneimine) and stabilizing effect of TNTs. This study can potentially offer a generalized method to capture and convert CO2, which is particularly desirable for sustainable formic acid production. More information can be found in the Full Paper by Y. Kuwahara et al. on page 1906 in Issue 11, 2017 (DOI: 10.1002/cctc.201700508). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highlights of papers published in this issue are presented including one on the transfer hydrogenation of nitroarenes, one on the role of gold nanoneedles as catalyzer of carbon dioxide, and one on herbicidal ionic liquids.

Hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol is one of the most attractive ways for carbon dioxide recycle and hydrogen storage. Our computationally designed Fe, Co, and Mn cyclopentadienone complexes are promising low‐cost catalysts for hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol. Density functional theory calculations also reveal a methanol‐ or water‐mediated proton‐transfer mechanism for H2 cleavage and a direct C−O bond‐breaking process for the formation of formaldehyde as key steps in the catalytic reaction. More information can be found in the Full Paper by X. Yang et al. on page 8850. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The front cover artwork for Issue 13/2016 is provided by researchers from the Catalysis Engineering group, Chemical Engineering Department, Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands). The image shows the formation of covalent triazine framework (CTF) based spheres by using commercially available polyimide as a binder. See the Full Paper itself at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is highly desired to achieve controllable product selectivity in CO2 hydrogenation. Herein, we report light‐induced switching of reaction pathways of CO2 hydrogenation towards CH3OH production over actomically dispersed Co decorated Pt@UiO‐66‐NH2. CO, being the main product in the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) pathway under thermocatalysis condition, is switched to CH3OH via the formate pathway with the assistance of light irradiation. Impressively, the space‐time yield of CH3OH in photo‐assisted thermocatalysis (1916.3 μmol gcat−1 h−1) is about 7.8 times higher than that without light at 240 °C and 1.5 MPa. Mechanism investigation indicates that upon light irradiation, excited UiO‐66‐NH2 can transfer electrons to Pt nanoparticles and Co sites, which can efficiently catalyze the critical elementary steps (i.e. CO2‐to‐*HCOO conversion), thus suppressing the RWGS pathway to achieve a high CH3OH selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is highly desired to achieve controllable product selectivity in CO2 hydrogenation. Herein, we report light‐induced switching of reaction pathways of CO2 hydrogenation towards CH3OH production over actomically dispersed Co decorated Pt@UiO‐66‐NH2. CO, being the main product in the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) pathway under thermocatalysis condition, is switched to CH3OH via the formate pathway with the assistance of light irradiation. Impressively, the space‐time yield of CH3OH in photo‐assisted thermocatalysis (1916.3 μmol gcat−1 h−1) is about 7.8 times higher than that without light at 240 °C and 1.5 MPa. Mechanism investigation indicates that upon light irradiation, excited UiO‐66‐NH2 can transfer electrons to Pt nanoparticles and Co sites, which can efficiently catalyze the critical elementary steps (i.e. CO2‐to‐*HCOO conversion), thus suppressing the RWGS pathway to achieve a high CH3OH selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]