Atomically dispersed Ru on flower-like In2O3 to boost CO2 hydrogenation to methanol

Metal-based catalysts are prevalent in the CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol owing to their remarkable catalytic activity. Herein, Ru/In 2 O 3 catalysts with different morphologies obtained by doping Ru into In 2 O 3 with irregular, rod-like, and flower-like morphologies are used for catalytic CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol. Results indicate that the flower-like Ru/In 2 O 3 (Ru/In 2 O 3 -F) exhibits higher catalytic performance than Ru/In 2 O 3 with other morphologies, achieving a 12.9% CO 2 conversion, 74.02% methanol selectivity, and 671.36 mg MeOH ·h −1 ·g cat −1 methanol spatiotemporal yield. Furthermore, Ru/In 2 O 3 -F maintains its catalytic stability over 200 h at 5 MPa and 290 °C. The promotional effect mainly stems from the fact that electronic structure of Ru can be effectively adjusted by modulating the morphology of In 2 O 3 . The strong interaction between atomically dispersed Ru and In 2 O 3 -F enhances the structural stability of Ru, inhibiting the agglomeration of the catalyst during the reaction process. Furthermore, density-functional theory calculations reveal that highly dispersed Ru atoms not only perform efficient and rapid electronic gain and loss processes, facilitating the catalytic activation of H 2 into H intermediates. It also enables the generated reactive H to rapidly overflow to the surrounding In sites to participate in CO 2 reduction. These findings provide a theoretical basis for the development of high-performance catalysts for CO 2 hydrogenation.