The direct conversion of CO2to CH3OH represents an appealing strategy for the mitigation of anthropogenic CO2emissions. Here, we report that small, narrowly distributed alloyed PdGa nanoparticles, prepared via surface organometallic chemistry from silica-supported GaIIIisolated sites, selectively catalyze the hydrogenation of CO2to CH3OH. At 230 °C and 25 bar, high activity (22.3 molMeOHmolPd-1h-1) and selectivity for CH3OH/DME (81%) are observed, while the corresponding silica-supported Pd nanoparticles show low activity and selectivity. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), IR, NMR, and scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray provide evidence for alloying in the as-synthesized material. In situ XAS reveals that there is a dynamic dealloying/realloying process, through Ga redox, while operando diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy demonstrates that, while both methoxy and formate species are observed in reaction conditions, the relative concentrations are inversely proportional, as the chemical potential of the gas phase is modulated. High CH3OH selectivities, across a broad range of conversions, are observed, showing that CO formation is suppressed for this catalyst, in contrast to reported Pd catalysts.@en

Selective hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol is a key sustainable technology, where Cu/Al2O3 prepared by surface organometallic chemistry displays high activity towards CO2 hydrogenation compared to Cu/SiO2, yielding CH3OH, dimethyl ether (DME), and CO. CH3OH formation rate increases due to the metal–oxide interface and involves formate intermediates according to advanced spectroscopy and DFT calculations. Al2O3 promotes the subsequent conversion of CH3OH to DME, showing bifunctional catalysis, but also increases the rate of CO formation. The latter takes place 1) directly by activation of CO2 at the metal–oxide interface, and 2) indirectly by the conversion of formate surface species and CH3OH to methyl formate, which is further decomposed into CH3OH and CO. This study shows how Al2O3, a Lewis acidic and non-reducible support, can promote CO2 hydrogenation by enabling multiple competitive reaction pathways on the oxide and metal–oxide interface.@en

Selective hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol is a key sustainable technology, where Cu/Al2O3 prepared by surface organometallic chemistry displays high activity towards CO2 hydrogenation compared to Cu/SiO2, yielding CH3OH, dimethyl ether (DME), and CO. CH3OH formation rate increases due to the metal–oxide interface and involves formate intermediates according to advanced spectroscopy and DFT calculations. Al2O3 promotes the subsequent conversion of CH3OH to DME, showing bifunctional catalysis, but also increases the rate of CO formation. The latter takes place 1) directly by activation of CO2 at the metal–oxide interface, and 2) indirectly by the conversion of formate surface species and CH3OH to methyl formate, which is further decomposed into CH3OH and CO. This study shows how Al2O3, a Lewis acidic and non-reducible support, can promote CO2 hydrogenation by enabling multiple competitive reaction pathways on the oxide and metal–oxide interface.@en

On page 452, column 1 (lines 12?23) reads: H2 and CO chemisorption show an uptake of 0.91 molH2 molPd?1 and 0.61 molCO molPd ?1, respectively (Table 1, Supporting Information S6). Considering a 1:1 CO/Pd stoichiometry,32 the dispersion from CO chemisorption (D?CO) equals 61%, in a reasonable agreement with the dispersion from TEM (D?TEM 70%; Supporting Information S9).32 While H2 chemisorption is not effective for a determination of the metal dispersion of Pd nanoparticles due to the formation of a stable bulk hydride with larger particles (2.6 nm),32 a comparison of the H2 uptake and D?CO would correspond to approximately three hydrogen atoms per surface Pd.@en