One-Pot Hydrothermal Synthesis of Multifunctional ZnZrTUD-1 Catalysts for Highly Efficient Direct Synthesis of Butadiene from Ethanol

The direct conversion of ethanol to butadiene (ETB) is a promising approach for renewable butadiene production. However, simultaneous achievement of high butadiene selectivity and catalyst stability has always been a challenge. Here, the multifunctional ZnZrTUD-1 catalyst possesses both superior catalytic performance and stability in direct ETB conversion. To study the effect of the active centers of catalysts on the catalytic performance, the designed active centers of the catalysts were optimized and further characterized by multiple techniques. One-pot hydrothermal synthesis was utilized to improve the interaction among ZnO, ZrO2, and TUD-1 mesoporous silicate. The results demonstrated that the optimized ZnZrTUD-1 catalyst possessed an excellent ability of resistance to carbon deposition and exhibited a synergistic catalysis effect. When the reaction was conducted at 400 °C and a weight hourly space velocity of 0.38 h–1, the catalytic performance revealed that it generated an outstanding butadiene selectivity of 62.5% and an ethanol conversion of 84.6%, which still remained stable during 50 h on stream.