Structural Heredity in Catalysis: CO2 Self ‐Selective CeO2 Nanocrystals for Efficient Photothermal CO2 Hydrogenation to Methane

A CO2 self-selective hydrothermal growth strategy is designed for the synthesis of CeO2 octahedral nanocrystals that participate in strong interactions with CO2 molecules which persists during successive high-temperature treatments required for Ni deposition. Such an excellent structural heredity leads to an outstanding photothermal CO2 methanation performance. This strategy represents a new pathway for developing effective catalysts for targeted chemical reactions. AbstractThe chemical inertness of CO2 molecules makes their adsorption and activation on a catalyst surface one of the key challenges in recycling CO2 into chemical fuels. However, the traditional template synthesis and chemical modification strategies used to tackle this problem face severe structural collapse and modifier deactivation issues during the often-needed post-processing procedure. Herein, a CO2 self-selective hydrothermal growth strategy is proposed for the synthesis of CeO2 octahedral nanocrystals that participate in strong physicochemical interactions with CO2 molecules. The intense affinity for CO2 molecules persists during successive high-temperature treatments required for Ni deposition. This demonstrates the excellent structural heredity of the CO2 self-selective CeO2 nanocrystals, which leads to an outstanding photothermal CH4 productivity exceeding 9  mmol h-1 mcat-2 and an impressive selectivity of>99%. The excellent performance is correlated with the abundant oxygen vacancies and hydroxy...
Source: Small - Category: Nanotechnology Authors: Tags: Research Article Source Type: research