Synthesis of Aluminium Doped Na-Titanate Nanorods and Its Application as Potential CO2 Hydrogenation Catalysts

A series of Al-doped Na-TiO2 nanorods (AlTi-nR-x) varying the Al2O3/TiO2 (Al/Ti) ratio was synthesized by hydrothermal method. TEM results revealed well-defined nanorod like shape morphology. XPS results confirmed the presence of Al inside the samples and a slight increase in electron density around the Ti atom. Calcined materials were evaluated in the CO2 hydrogenation (HYD) in a continuous flow-microreactor at 280–340 °C under atmospheric pressure. Results from this work exposed that all AlTi-nR-x materials have great potential to be used as CO2 HYD catalysts. However, the best catalytic performance was obtained with the AlTi-nR-0.5 catalysts, which also displayed high selectivity (82%) towards methanol.