因与环境和能源问题密切相关，CO2加氢制甲醇技术倍受青睐，而催化剂是制约其工业化的关键因素之一。目前Cu-ZnO催化剂研究最多，但催化反应机理与金属-载体相互作用仍有较大争议。近年来表面科学与理论研究发现ZnO单晶表面结构性质直接影响其吸附行为和沉积金属结构，但所用模型样品结构简单，并不具催化活性。最近我们发现氧化物纳米单晶负载金属纳米粒子可构建更接近真实体系的纳米尺度模型催化剂，其性能与载体暴露晶面密切相关。因此本项目拟详细考察不同长径比棒状ZnO纳米单晶的制备方法，调节其暴露极性面的多寡。同时系统研究ZnO纳米单晶表面极性对其化学吸附、以及液相中表面铜沉积生长的影响。进而采用不同的ZnO纳米单晶负载相同的铜纳米粒子制备模型催化剂，系统研究载体表面结构与性质对催化剂化学吸附和CO2加氢催化性能的影响规律。本项目的实施有望丰富对金属-氧化物相互作用的认识，为高效催化剂开发提供基础数据。

In the past decades, catalytic conversion of CO2 has a positive impact on the important environmental and energy issues. In particular, the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol looks very attractive due to its position as a high energy density liquid fuel and key chemical intermediate. The majority research on catalytic studies for CO2 hydrogenation has been using modified industrial Cu-ZnO catalysts. But up to now, the exploitation of the catalyst is slow due to the lack of knowledge on both hydrogenation reactions and the fundamental understanding of important materials interaction(s) in catalyst formulation. The invetigations by using surface science technique and theoretical caculation simulation revealed that the surface structure and property of ZnO single crystal is important for its chemical adsorption behavior and the structure of deposited Cu nanoparticles. But the simple and clean single crystals used for these studies are always inactive compared with real catalysts. Recently, we have reported that metal nanoparticles supported on oxide nanocrytals can be utilized as nano-scale model catalysts, whose catalytic properties can be tested directly and affected markedly by the exposed surface of the support.In this proposal, we planned to synthesize a series of ZnO nanocrystals, of which the exposed polar surface proportion can be controlled. Thus, we can investigate the relationship between the support's surface polarity and the chemical adsorption behavior as well as the growing model of deposited Cu nanoparticles on its surface. Additionally, the similar Cu nanoparticles will be supported on different ZnO nanocrytals to prepare nano-scale model catalysts. The influence of the nanocrystal surface on the chemical adsorption behavior and catalytic properties of these model catalysts will be systematically investigated for the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol. We believe that the relationships between surface properties, materials interaction and catalytic performance provide a new clue to rational catalyst design for this important green process.