CO2 hydrogenation to methanol on ZnO-ZrO2 solid solution catalysts with ordered mesoporous structure.

[Display omitted] • ZnO-ZrO 2 catalysts with ordered mesoporous structure were prepared by evaporation-induced self-assembly method. • The EISA catalysts exhibit better performance in CO 2 hydrogenation compared to that prepared by co-precipitation. • The better performance is mainly ascribed to the higher specific surface areas and more active sites. • The 20% ZnO-ZrO 2 (EISA, cleaned) achieves a methanol formation rate of 22.1 mmol·h-1·g cat -1 at 320°C, 5.5 MPa. CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol is becoming a potential route for reducing CO 2 emission, benefiting from the worldwide growth of renewable energy for H 2 production. In this work, the ZnO-ZrO 2 solid solution catalysts with ordered mesoporous structure were constructed by the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process using triblock copolymer P123 as the template. The 20% ZnO-ZrO 2 catalyst prepared by the evaporation-induced self-assembly process shows a methanol formation rate of 22.1 mmol·h-1·g cat -1 at 320°C, 5.5 MPa, which is 1.35 times that of the catalyst prepared by co-precipitation. Characterizations prove that the EISA catalysts have larger specific surface areas and more sites for the activation of CO 2 and H 2 , which are related to the higher CO 2 conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]