Flame-made Cu/ZrO₂ catalysts with metastable phase and strengthened interactions for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol

Facile synthesis of a highly efficient Cu/ZrO₂ catalyst by a flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) method was developed for methanol production from CO₂ hydrogenation. The instantaneous quenching process from extremely high temperature in FSP was used for rational design of a Cu/ZrO₂ catalyst, not only producing the metastable tetragonal phase ZrO₂, but also strengthening the metal–support interaction. The methanol yield of one-step synthesized FSP-Cu/ZrO₂ was 3 times higher than the one made by the traditional method. This strategy is anticipated to pave the way for strengthening metal–support interactions of supported catalysts.