Improvement in the activity of Ru/ZrO2 for CO2 methanation by the enhanced hydrophilicity of zirconia

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 360; p. 124549
• Main Authors: Liu, Menghui, Zou, Rui, Liu, Chang-jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.01.2025
• Subjects: CO2 methanation; Hydrophilicity; Plasma; Ruthenium; Zirconia; Zirconia; Plasma; Ruthenium; Hydrophilicity; CO2 methanation
• ISSN: 0926-3373
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2024.124549

Increasing interests in the supported Ru catalysts for CO2 methanation can be recently found in the literature. In this work, we demonstrated that the enhanced surface hydrophilicity of ZrO2 via air plasma treatment has significant effects on the properties of Ru/ZrO2 catalyst for CO2 methanation. At the same CO2 conversions, the reaction temperature over the catalysts on ZrO2 with enhanced hydrophilicity is 20–70 °C lower than those on untreated ZrO2. The catalyst characterization confirms that the enhanced hydrophilicity leads to more hydroxyl groups and oxygen vacancies on the support, which further promotes CO2 adsorption and activation, facilitating the conversion of CO2 to HCO3* and HCOO* in formate pathway. The enhanced hydrophilicity also causes a high Ru dispersion with stronger electronic interaction between Ru and ZrO2, which forms more interfacial active sites and improves the adsorption and dissociation of H2, promoting the linear-CO-Ru0 adsorption in CO* pathway. [Display omitted] •The Ru catalyst on ZrO2 with enhanced hydrophilicity has improved activity.•The enhanced hydrophilicity causes more hydroxyl groups on the support.•The enhanced hydrophilicity causes more oxygen vacancies on the support.•The enhanced hydrophilicity improves CO2 adsorption and activation.•The enhanced hydrophilicity improves the Ru dispersion on the support.