Preparation and Characterization of Hollow CeO2 Nanoparticles for the Efficient Conversion of CO2 into Dimethyl Carbonate

Abstract

AbstractThe hollow CeO2 (H‐CeO2) nanoparticles with mesoporous defects structure were prepared by a solid template method under ambient pressure and applied to catalyze the conversion of CO2 into dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The textural properties of H‐CeO2 were investigated by various characterization techniques. The results showed that H‐CeO2 have higher surface area, more mesoporous defects and higher surface oxygen vacancies concentration than those of conventional CeO2 with block morphology (C‐CeO2). Therefore, H‐CeO2 exhibited better catalytic performance for the conversion of CO2 into DMC. Additionally, the Ce(NO3)3 ⋅ 6H2O amount in preparation procedure was important for the formation of hollow structure and mesoporous defects. The DMC yield could reach 4.96 % on H‐CeO2‐1.2 (Ce(NO3)3 ⋅ 6H2O amount: 1.2 g) catalyst when the reaction was performed at 140 °C and 4.5 MPa for 4 h. This work proposed a facile strategy for designing CeO2 catalysts for the CO2 conversion by creating mesoporous defective structure.