Oxygen vacancy promoted carbon dioxide activation over Cu/ZrO 2 for CO 2 -to-methanol conversion.

Oxygen vacancy-enriched ultrafine tetragonal ZrO 2 was introduced as a support for copper nanoparticles to enhance the energy efficiency of CO 2 hydrogenation for methanol synthesis. In situ spectroscopic techniques confirmed the oxygen vacancy-mediated single-electron CO 2 activation. The resulting highly efficient catalyst yielded a methanol production rate of 550 mg g cat -1 h -1 at 200 °C, outperforming state-of-the-art Cu-based catalysts.