Competition between reverse water gas shift reaction and methanol synthesis from CO₂: influence of copper particle size

Converting CO₂ into value-added chemicals and fuels, such as methanol, is a promising approach to limit the environmental impact of human activities. Conventional methanol synthesis catalysts have shown limited efficiency and poor stability in a CO₂/H₂ mixture. To design improved catalysts, crucial for the effective utilization of CO₂, an in-depth understanding of the active sites and reaction mechanism is desired. The catalytic performance of a series of carbon-supported Cu catalysts, with Cu particle sizes in the range of 5 to 20 nm, was evaluated under industrially relevant temperature and pressure, i.e. 260 °C and 40 bar(g). The CO₂ hydrogenation reaction exhibited clear particle size effects up to 13 nm particles, with small nanoparticles having the lower activity, but higher methanol selectivity. MeOH and CO formation showed a different size-dependence. The TOF_CO increased from 1.9 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ to 9.4 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ with Cu size increasing from 5 nm to 20 nm, while the TOF_MeOH was size-independent (8.4 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ on average). The apparent activation energies for MeOH and CO formation were size-independent with values of 63 ± 7 kJ mol⁻¹ and 118 ± 6 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively. Hence the size dependence was ascribed to a decrease in the fraction of active sites suitable for CO formation with decreasing particle size. Theoretical models and DFT calculations showed that the origin of the particle size effect is most likely related to the differences in formate coverage for different Cu facets whose abundancy depends on particle size. Hence, the CO₂ hydrogenation reaction is intrinsically sensitive to the Cu particle size.