Identification of Metallic Nickel-Hydroxyl Interfaces as Active Sites for Efficient Catalytic CO₂ Hydrogenation.

Authors

Bolang Li, Min Chen, Xueyan Chen, Xiaoxiao Qin, Weiming Qian, Jianghao Zhang, Chao Gai, Kailong Ye, Fudong Liu, Hong He, Changbin Zhang

Published in

Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). Pages e74955. Aug 14, 2026. Epub Aug 14, 2026.

Abstract

CO₂ hydrogenation to methane is a promising strategy for sustainable fuel production and carbon emission control. Ni-based catalysts are widely investigated for CO₂ methanation, while the exact nature of active sites is still controversial. Here, we show that the metallic Ni in conjunction with hydroxyl groups plays a determining role in CO₂ hydrogenation reaction. Keeping both the high proportion of Ni⁰ and the high amount of OH groups achieves excellent catalytic activity. Conversely, a decrease in either the proportion of Ni⁰ or the concentration of OH groups would result in a sharply decreased activity. We reveal that interfacial Ni⁰-OH sites are highly efficient for CO₂ adsorption and activation, which follows the key step of CO₂ hydrogenation to HCOO* and exhibits a lower barrier on the interfacial Ni⁰-OH sites than on the Ni⁰ sites. These findings provide essential insights into the identification of active sites on Ni-based catalysts for CO₂ hydrogenation and are pivotal for the design of highly active catalysts.

PMID:
42596866
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Aug 2026.

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