Tuning product selectivity in CO2 hydrogenation over metal-based catalysts

Conversion of CO₂ into chemicals is a promising strategy for CO₂ utilization, but its intricate transformation pathways and insufficient product selectivity still pose challenges. Exploiting new catalysts for tuning product selectivity in CO₂ hydrogenation is important to improve the viability of this technology, where reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) and methanation as competitive reactions play key roles in controlling product selectivity in CO₂ hydrogenation. So far, a series of metal-based catalysts with adjustable strong metal–support interactions, metal surface structure, and local environment of active sites have been developed, significantly tuning the product selectivity in CO₂ hydrogenation. Herein, we describe the recent advances in the fundamental understanding of the two reactions in CO₂ hydrogenation, in terms of emerging new catalysts which regulate the catalytic structure and switch reaction pathways, where the strong metal–support interactions, metal surface structure, and local environment of the active sites are particularly discussed. They are expected to enable efficient catalyst design for minimizing the deep hydrogenation and controlling the reaction towards the RWGS reaction. Finally, the potential utilization of these strategies for improving the performance of industrial catalysts is examined.

A series of metal oxide, phosphate, alloy, and carbide-based catalysts for selective CO₂ hydrogenation are summarized, showing their abilities to switch CO₂ methanation to RWGS.