Researchers develop novel catalyst for carbon dioxide hydrogenation to formate

Hydrogenation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to formate is an attractive approach for the utilization of this greenhouse gas. However, non-precious metal-based catalysts for CO₂ hydrogenation to formate suffer from either low activity or low stability. It is still challenging to develop low-cost and high-performance catalysts.

Recently, a research group led by Prof. Deng Dehui from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed an edge-rich molybdenum disulfide (ER-MoS₂) catalyst for CO₂ hydrogenation to formate with superior activity and high stability.

The study was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on July 20.

In the study, the ER-MoS₂ with abundant edges delivered a high turnover frequency of 780.7 h^-1 with formate selectivity of over 99% at 200°C, and exhibited good stability.

The researchers revealed that sulfur vacancies at MoS₂ edges were the active sites, and the selective production of formate was enabled via a new water-mediated hydrogenation mechanism, in which surface OH* and H* species from H₂O dissociation on the edge-sulfur vacancies served as moderate hydrogenating agents with residual O* reduced by H₂.

"This work opens new avenues for developing low-cost non-noble metal catalysts for the hydrogenation of CO₂ to formate," said Prof. Deng. "The water-mediated reaction mechanism also provides insights for designing MoS₂-based catalysts for selective hydrogenation reactions."