Deciphering the role of CNT for methanol fuel synthesis by CO₂ hydrogenation over Cu/CNT catalysts

A series of Cu/CNT catalysts were applied for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol in three phase reactor. In order to probe the promotion role of copper, catalysts with 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 wt. % of Cu were synthesized by precipitation method. Different analytical techniques like Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Nitrogen adsorption desorption technique (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller BET) were utilized to assess the nature of synthesized Cu doped CNT catalysts. Activity data revealed the promoting role of copper by manifesting magnitude of methanol synthesis rate as 32, 58 and 75 g_meth./kg _cat.h for 0.2Cu/CNT, 0.4Cu/CNT and 0.8Cu/CNT catalysts, respectively. The activity data confirmed the promoting role of Cu for methanol synthesis by CO₂ hydrogenation. The comparative data of CNT based Cu catalysts with traditional supported Cu catalysts demonstrated the efficient role of CNT as methanol synthesis catalysts for the title reaction.