Utilization of CO₂ for aromatics production over ZnO/ZrO₂-ZSM-5 tandem catalyst

In the past decades, considerable achievements have been made in CO₂ hydrogenation to various C1 chemicals, lower olefins, and gasoline. However, the synthesis of aromatics from one-pass CO₂ hydrogenation is still a great challenge owing to the extreme inertness of CO₂ and the high aromatization barrier. Here we present a tandem catalyst comprising of ZnO/ZrO₂ and ZSM-5 zeolite for one-pass CO₂ conversion to aromatics with a selectivity of 70%, and the selectivity of undesirable methane is greatly suppressed to lower than 1%. A pathway of CO₂ → CH₃OH → aromatics over the tandem catalyst was demonstrated. This work offers a viable alternative for CO₂ emission abatement through its valorization as a low or even negative-cost feedstock.