An INS investigation of Cu/ZnO catalysts for methanol synthesis via CO2 hydrogenation

The prospect of producing methanol via the hydrogenation of CO2 over copper based catalysts is an exciting area of research that has been invigorated by the realization that bimetallic catalysts can convey favourable yields for extended periods of time-on-stream. Previous work by Lennon and Parker on Cu catalysts using MAPS (RB1310078) established the suitability of this reaction to interrogation by INS. The present study seeks to obtain the post-reaction vibrational spectra of two new methanol synthesis catalyst formulations (Cu-Pd/ZnO and Cu-Ag/ZnO) and to compare the spectra to that of a reference Cu/ZnO sample.