Modulation strategy and effect of metal-support interaction over catalysts for carbon dioxide methanation

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) methanation is an essential technology for addressing global challenges such as sustainable energy storage, space exploration, and the reduction of CO₂ emission. This technology has attracted broad attention in recent years. To really implement the CO₂ methanation process, it is crucial to design stable and highly effective catalysts. The activity and selectivity of heterogeneous catalysts can be efficiently tuned by controlling the metal-support interaction, and this strategy has been widely used in the catalyst design for CO₂ methanation. In fact, the catalytic activity can be enhanced by up to ∼25 times in a CO₂ methanation catalyst due to metal-support interaction. In this review, we summarize the recent progress on metal-support interaction in heterogeneous catalysts for CO₂ methanation. At first, we will systemically discuss the effect of metal-support interaction in CO₂ methanation catalysts, followed by a detailed introduction to its modulation strategy. Through quantitative analysis, we will point out changing chemical composition of catalyst support is the most efficient method to enhance the catalytic performance, and the primary goal of catalyst design is the modulation of electron transfer between metal particles and the support. We will also sketch the potential research direction of this promising field.