Highly selective conversion of CO to methanol on the CuZnO-ZrO solid solution with the assistance of plasma.

CuZnO-ZrO-C was prepared by a co-precipitation method. For comparison, CuZnO-ZrO-PC and CuZnO-ZrO-CP were prepared by glow discharge plasma. The catalysts were characterized the XRD, N adsorption-desorption, TEM, SEM, EDS, XPS, CO-TPD and H-TPR techniques. The catalysts were comparatively investigated for CO conversion and methanol selectivity in a fixed-bed reactor under the condition of 2 MPa, 250 °C, H/CO = 3/1 and GHSV = 12 000 mL g h. The results showed that the activities of the catalysts increased in the order of CuZnO-ZrO-PC > CuZnO-ZrO-CP > CuZnO-ZrO-C. Moreover, the CO conversion of CuZnO-ZrO-C increased by 38.9% treatment with glow discharge plasma. The results are well explained based on the CO-TPD and H-TPR characterizations of the catalysts.