ZnO Supported on a Zr-Based Metal–Organic Framework for Selective CO<sub>2</sub> Hydrogenation to Methanol
Jingzheng Zhang, Bing An, Yonghua Cao, Zhe Li, Jiawei Chen, Xuefeng He, Cheng Wang
Abstract
ZnO supported on ZrO2 is active in hydrogenating CO2 to methanol. The local structure at the ZnO/ZrO2 interface must play an important role in catalysis. Here, we support ZnO on Zr-based metal–organic framework (MOF) nanoplates to construct an active catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. Compared to ZrO2, the Zr-based MOF has a better-defined local structure on the surface. The Zr-based MOF contains Zr12(μ3-O)8(μ3-OH)8(μ2-OH)6 clusters connected by linear biphenyldicarboxylate (bpdc) linkers. No aggregation of the ZnO nanoparticles was observed after the catalysis of 100 h at 250 °C. The resulting ZnO/Zr12-bpdc catalysts show a space time yield of up to 110 mgMeOH gcatalyst–1 h–1 or 440 mgMeOH gZn–1 h–1 and more than 95% selectivity for methanol. This work replaces the ZnO/ZrO2 interface with the contact between ZnO and a Zr12 cluster in a MOF to obtain an active catalyst, providing insights into the chemical structure of the active sites in ZnO/ZrO2 catalysts.