Against the backdrop of China’s “dual-carbon” goals

the valorization of CO2 plays a crucial role in sustainable carbon emission reduction

while low-temperature plasma technology with non-equilibrium characteristics demonstrates unique advantages in CO2 conversion. This study achieves efficient CO2 dissociation through spark discharge plasma coupled with ZrO2/CeO2 materials

systematically investigating the impacts of different power supplies and ZrO2/CeO2 compositions on CO2 conversion performance. Multiple diagnostic techniques are employed to analyze the reaction mechanism. Research results reveal that the synergistic enhancement of nanosecond pulsed power supply and chemically mixed ZrO2/CeO2 affords a maximum CO2 conversion rate of 21.00% and a CO production rate of 0.42 g/h. The highest energy efficiency and minimum energy cost achieved are 14.05% and 2.01×103 kJ/mol

respectively. Facilitating by optical emission spectra characterization with the microstructure and properties assessment of ZrO2/CeO2

the underlying conversion mechanism is elucidated from two aspects: On one hand

the generation and interaction of reactive species in spark discharge plasma driven by a nanosecond pulsed source promote efficient CO2 dissociation pathways; on the other hand

under the thermal effects of the plasma

the adsorption and activation of CO2 via the oxygen vacancies in the ZrO2/CeO2 composite effectively enhance CO2 dissociation processes

thereby improving the overall conversion performance.