New trimetallic nanoparticles as catalysts for the conversion of carbon dioxide to renewable fuels

Gow, Isla 2023. New trimetallic nanoparticles as catalysts for the conversion of carbon dioxide to renewable fuels. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

In this thesis, the conversion of CO2 to methanol is examined using novel trimetallic catalysts. Initial studies focused on the use of Pd/ZnO catalysts. Different types of zinc oxide were synthesised by precipitation which exhibited a wide range of surface areas and morphologies. In addition to changing the ZnO catalyst support, palladium weight loading and catalyst synthesis techniques were also varied. Despite the significance of these changes, in general, this resulted in very little impact on catalyst performance. The reasons for this were explored, and the formation of the PdZn alloy was identified as the critical factor in producing effective Pd/ZnO catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. The addition of copper to Pd/ZnO was investigated with the aim of improving the catalyst activity. Different Cu loadings were investigated. The CuPd/ZnO catalysts were found to have higher CO2 conversion compared to Pd/ZnO, although this corresponded to a decline in methanol selectivity. The most productive catalysts were those which were doped with very low levels of Cu (~0.75 wt.%). The addition of Au was then employed to improve the methanol selectivity, which represented a further improvement in the catalytic performance of these systems. Characterisation of the CuPd/ZnO and AuCuPd/ZnO catalysts was challenging due to their high degrees of freedom and lack of available reference data. A variety of complementary techniques were used to identify novel trimetallic alloys in these catalysts, although further experiments, in particular in-situ methodologies, will be necessary in the future to confirm these observations.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Chemistry
Funders:	C2C project
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 May 2024
Last Modified:	13 May 2024 09:36
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168852

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