Industrial basalt fiber-loaded CuNi for the continuous synthesis of DMC from CO2 and methanol

Abstract

Developing efficient catalysts is crucial for the chemical utilization of CO₂, which would be conducive to solving both environmental issues and the resource crisis. In this work, a basalt fiber (BF)-supported CuNi catalyst was constructed for the conversion of CO₂ and methanol to dimethyl carbonate (DMC). In order to optimize the surface properties of BF, the pristine BF (BF-U) was modified by HCl (BF-H) and NaOH (BF-N) solutions. The influence of the BF surface properties on the physicochemical state of CuNi and the catalytic performance of the supported CuNi/BF catalysts was systematically investigated. The results showed that the CuNi/BF-N monolithic catalyst had the best activity, and the yield of DMC reached 12.9%. SEM, XRD, and XPS characterizations exhibited that the CuNi nanoalloy particles were uniformly distributed on BF-N and possessed high Cu^0/1+ and Ni⁰ contents. This contributed to the abundant CO₂ adsorption sites, as evidenced by CO₂-TPD, especially for the medium-strength CO₂ adsorption sites, which was responsible for the superior catalytic activity. This study provides an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of DMC from CO₂ and methanol and can serve as a reference for industrial catalyst design.