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

Abstract

The 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.