Highly selective conversion of CO 2 to methanol on the CuZnO-ZrO 2 solid solution with the assistance of plasma

CuZnO-ZrO -C was prepared by a co-precipitation method. For comparison, CuZnO-ZrO -PC and CuZnO-ZrO -CP were prepared by glow discharge plasma. The catalysts were characterized the XRD, N adsorption-desorption, TEM, SEM, EDS, XPS, CO -TPD and H -TPR techniques. The catalysts were comparatively investigated for CO conversion and methanol selectivity in a fixed-bed reactor under the condition of 2 MPa, 250 °C, H /CO = 3/1 and GHSV = 12 000 mL g h . The results showed that the activities of the catalysts increased in the order of CuZnO-ZrO -PC > CuZnO-ZrO -CP > CuZnO-ZrO -C. Moreover, the CO conversion of CuZnO-ZrO -C increased by 38.9% treatment with glow discharge plasma. The results are well explained based on the CO -TPD and H -TPR characterizations of the catalysts.