Bimetallic CuCo nanoparticles derived from hydrotalcite supported on carbon fibers for higher alcohols synthesis from syngas

Abstract Higher alcohols synthesis (HAS) is a strong exothermal reaction which leads to the formation of hotspots on the catalysts and the hotspots result in poor selectivity, and Cu–Co based catalysts are one of the most promising to which the formation of Cu–Co alloy is critical. Therefore a new scheme was proposed, based on the excellent thermal conductivity of carbon fibers (CFs) and the uniform mixing of metal ions in layered double hydroxides (LDHs), the latter favors the formation of metallic alloy. Nanocomposites of LDHs and CFs were prepared by using co-precipitation method and used for HAS, and characterized by using FTIR, N2 adsorption–desorption, XRD, TPR, SEM and TEM techniques. In the composites, nanosheets with the typical LDHs morphology are perpendicularly grown on the surface of CFs while intersecting each other, creating a highly open and porous structure. After reduction, Cu–Co-alloy nanoparticles are formed from the LDHs. The resultant catalysts showed high activity and much high selectivity to higher alcohols. The reported methods can be expanded to prepare other LDHs/CFs composites.