Julia Schumann

The Mechanism of CO and CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol over Cu-Based Catalysts

Methanol, an important chemical, fuel additive, and precursor for clean fuels, is produced by hydrogenation of carbon oxides over Cu‐based catalysts. Despite the technological maturity of this process, the understanding of this apparently simple reaction is still incomplete with regard to the reaction mechanism and the active sites. Regarding the latter, recent progress has shown that stepped and ZnOx‐decorated Cu surfaces are crucial for the performance of industrial catalysts. Herein, we integrate this insight with additional experiments into a full microkinetic description of methanol synthesis. In particular, we show how the presence or absence of the Zn promoter dramatically changes not only the activity, but unexpectedly the reaction mechanism itself. The Janus‐faced character of Cu with two different sites for methanol synthesis, Zn‐promoted and unpromoted, resolves the long‐standing controversy regarding the Cu/Zn synergy and adds methanol synthesis to the few major industrial catalytic processes that are described on an atomic level.

Counting of Oxygen Defects versus Metal Surface Sites in Methanol Synthesis Catalysts by Different Probe Molecules

Different surface sites of solid catalysts are usually quantified by dedicated chemisorption techniques from the adsorption capacity of probe molecules, assuming they specifically react with unique sites. In case of methanol synthesis catalysts, the Cu surface area is one of the crucial parameters in catalyst design and was for over 25 years commonly determined using diluted N2O. To disentangle the influence of the catalyst components, different model catalysts were prepared and characterized using N2O, temperature programmed desorption of H2, and kinetic experiments. The presence of ZnO dramatically influences the N2O measurements. This effect can be explained by the presence of oxygen defect sites that are generated at the Cu-ZnO interface and can be used to easily quantify the intensity of Cu-Zn interaction. N2O in fact probes the Cu surface plus the oxygen vacancies, whereas the exposed Cu surface area can be accurately determined by H2.

Synthesis and Characterisation of a Highly Active Cu/ZnO:Al Catalyst

We report the application of an optimised synthesis protocol of a Cu/ZnO:Al catalyst. The different stages of synthesis are all well‐characterised by using various methods with regard to the (micro‐)structural, textural, solid‐state kinetic, defect and surface properties. The low amount of the Al promoter (3 %) influences but does not generally change the phase evolution known for binary Cu/ZnO catalysts. Its main function seems to be the introduction of defect sites in ZnO by doping. These sites as well as the large Cu surface area are responsible for the large N2O chemisorption capacity. Under reducing conditions, the Al promoter, just as Zn, is found enriched at the surface suggesting an active role in the strong metal–support interaction between Cu and ZnO:Al. The different stages of the synthesis are comprehensively analysed and found to be highly reproducible in the 100 g scale. The resulting catalyst is characterised by a uniform elemental distribution, small Cu particles (8 nm), a porous texture (pore size of approximately 25 nm), high specific surface area (approximately 120 m2 g−1), a high amount of defects in the Cu phase and synergetic Cu–ZnO interaction. A high and stable performance was found in methanol synthesis. We wish to establish this complex but well‐studied material as a benchmark system for Cu‐based catalysts.

Theoretical and Experimental Studies of CoGa Catalysts for the Hydrogenation of CO2 to Methanol

Methanol is an important chemical compound which is used both as a fuel and as a platform molecule in chemical production. Synthesizing methanol, as well as dimethyl ether, directly from carbon dioxide and hydrogen produced using renewable electricity would be a major step forward in enabling an environmentally sustainable economy. We utilize density functional theory combined with microkinetic modeling to understand the methanol synthesis reaction mechanism on a model CoGa catalyst. A series of catalysts with varying Ga content are synthesized and experimentally tested for catalytic performance. The performance of these catalysts is sensitive to the Co:Ga ratio, whereby increased Ga content results in increased methanol and dimethyl ether selectivity and increased Co content results in increased selectivity towards methane. We find that the most active catalysts have up to 95% CO-free selectivity towards methanol and dimethyl ether during CO2 hydrogenation and are comparable in performance to a commercial CuZn catalyst. Using in situ DRIFTS we experimentally verify the presence of a surface formate intermediate during CO2 hydrogenation in support of our theoretical calculations.Graphical Abstract