In Situ Carbon-Confined MoSe 2 Catalyst with Heterojunction for Highly Selective CO 2 Hydrogenation to Methanol

The synthesis of methanol from CO hydrogenation is an effective measure to deal with global climate change and an important route for the chemical fixation of CO . In this work, carbon-confined MoSe (MoSe @C) catalysts were prepared by in situ pyrolysis using glucose as a carbon source. The physico-chemical properties and catalytic performance of CO hydrogenation to yield methanol were compared with MoSe and MoSe /C. The results of the structure characterization showed MoSe displayed few layers and a small particle size. Owing to the synergistic effect of the Mo C-MoSe heterojunction and in situ carbon doping, MoSe @C with a suitable C/Mo mole ratio in the precursor showed excellent catalytic performance in the synthesis of methanol from CO hydrogenation. Under the optimal catalyst MoSe @C-55, the selectivity of methanol reached 93.7% at a 9.7% conversion of CO under optimized reaction conditions, and its catalytic performance was maintained without deactivation during a continuous reaction of 100 h. In situ diffuse infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy studies suggested that formate and CO were the key intermediates in CO hydrogenation to methanol.