Cerium oxide-based catalysts made by template-precipitation for the dimethyl carbonate synthesis from Carbon dioxide and methanol

This paper mainly describes a novel synthesis of three different ceria catalysts CeO2, CeO2-SiO2 and CeO2-4A via template-precipitation method. The prepared catalysts were fully characterized by means of temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), BET surface area test, SEM and FTIR. The catalytic performance over these ceria catalysts were examined for the dimethyl carbonate (DMC) synthesis from CO2 and methanol. The results indicate that CeO2-4A exhibits the highest DMC yield, followed by CeO2-SiO2 and CeO2 catalysts. Under the reaction conditions at 0.6 MPa and 120 °C with space velocity of 300 h−1, the highest methanol conversion is 3.97% with DMC selectivity of 81.4%.