CO2 hydrogenation to methanol: Optimizing the methanol yield by removing thermodynamic bottlenecks via scavenging the precursors of competing reactions

In this project, we aim to develop a catalytic system to circumvent the thermodynamic bottlenecks associated with CO2 hydrogenation to methanol reaction. The catalytic system would combine two different metal-supports systems which allow the diffusion of the intermediates for the side reactions formed on the first system to the second system and selectively hydrogenate them to complete the catalytic cycles. These systems will be studied using kinetic and isotopic exchange methods and FTIR spectroscopy will be used to monitor the surface species and active sites. We aim to access kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for these reactions in order to construct a mechanism for CO2 hydrogenation over such systems.