Effect of glucose pretreatment on Cu–ZnO–Al2O3 catalyzed CO2 hydrogenation to methanol

Abstract

A series of Cu–ZnO–Al₂O₃ catalysts (CZA) were prepared by glucose pretreatment and applied for methanol synthesis from CO₂ hydrogenation. The advantages of the glucose pretreatment and the effects of glucose content were investigated by XRD, N₂ physisorption, SEM, N₂O chemisorption, CO₂-TPD, H₂-TPR, TG, and XPS characterization techniques. The influence of glucose pretreatment on the average Cu particle size and the interaction between different components, as well as the effects of the amount of glucose on the Cu specific surface area, the ratio of Cu⁰/Cu⁺ and the performance of the catalysts were discussed. The results showed that the catalysts prepared by glucose pretreatment increased the number of basic sites and had a significant advantage in methanol yield. The optimum content of glucose was beneficial to improve the catalytic performance of the CZA catalyst. The maximum space-time yield of methanol was obtained by 2 wt% glucose pretreatments at 200 °C, which was 57.0 g kg⁻¹ h⁻¹.