Hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol over Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts

A series of Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts with 1–3 wt% Au and 30 wt% CuO were successfully prepared for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol by chemical reduction and the following impregnation. The influence of Au content on the physicochemical properties of Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts was investigated in terms of ICP-AES, N2 physisorption, XRD, TEM, N2O titration, XPS and H2–TPR technique. The results showed that the as-prepared Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalysts exhibited higher catalytic activity than CuO/SBA-15 catalyst. 2 % Au–CuO/SBA-15 catalyst showed the best catalytic activity with 13.5 % methanol selectivity and 24.2 % CO2 conversion for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. The addition of Au NPs played an important role in improving the catalytic activity for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol, which may be attributed to the interaction between Au and CuO.