Effect of preparation methods of ZnO/ZrO2 catalysts for methanol synthesis from CO2 hydrogenation

A series of ZnO/ZrO2 catalysts were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and impregnation method and were test for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. The results showed that ZnO deposited by the ALD method was highly dispersed on ZrO2, while the catalysts prepared by impregnation method formed ZnO-ZrO2 solid solution. Due to the formation of solid solution, a strong interaction between the Zn-Zr-O can be detected from XPS measurements for the impregnated sample. For ZnO/ZrO2 catalysts, the solid solution played an important role in the catalytic performance. The catalysts prepared by ALD did not form the solid solution; therefore, they were inferior to the sample prepared by impregnation method.