Sorption enhanced methanol production makes use of the equilibrium shift of the \(\hbox {CO}_2\) hydrogenation reaction towards the desired products. However, the increased complexity of the catalyst system leads to additional reactions and thus side products such as dimethyl ether, and complicates the analysis of the reaction mechanism. On the other hand, the unusually high concentration of intermediates and products in the sorbent facilitates the use of inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectroscopy. Despite being a post-mortem method, the INS data revealed the change of the reaction path during sorption catalysis. Concretely, the experiments indicate that the varying water partial pressure due to the adsorption saturation of the zeolite sorbent influences the progress of the reaction steps in which water is involved. Experiments with model catalysts support the INS findings.

吸附增强甲醇生产利用\(\hbox {CO}_2\)加氢反应生成所需产物。然而，催化剂体系的复杂性增加会导致额外的反应，从而导致副产物如二甲醚，并使反应机理的分析变得复杂。另一方面，吸附剂中异常高浓度的中间体和产物促进了非弹性中子散射 (INS) 光谱的使用。尽管是一种事后分析方法，但 INS 数据揭示了吸附催化过程中反应路径的变化。具体而言，实验表明，由于沸石吸附剂的吸附饱和引起的水分压变化会影响涉及水的反应步骤的进程。模型催化剂的实验支持了 INS 的发现。