Insight into the structural sensitivity of CuZnAl catalysts for CO hydrogenation to alcohols

The catalytic conversion of CO hydrogenation is a structure-sensitive reaction over Cu-based catalyst. It is very important to distinguish the structural differentiation and possible reaction pathway of Cu-based catalysts in methanol synthesis and ethanol/C2+OH synthesis. Herein, the activity of four types of CuZnAl catalysts is evaluated, and their structural differentiation is investigated. The CuZnAl catalyst (CZA) prepared by a complete liquid-phase (CLP) method after solid–liquid separation directly applied in the fixed bed reactor also shows the ability to synthesize ethanol and higher alcohols (C2+OH), with the selectivity of C2+OH in liquid product reaching up to 31.6% at the CO conversion of 10.6%. However, commercial methanol synthesis catalyst (CMC) displays the highest CO conversion (28.2%) and the poorest C2+OH selectivity (7.8%). After characterized by ICP, XRD, CO-TPD, N2O adsorption, XPS, SEM, TEM and in-situ DRIFTS techniques, it is discovered that the dispersion of Cu and the exposed Cu surface area significantly influences CO conversion. The selectivity of ethanol and C2+OH is related to the size and distribution of Cu, the architectural feature, and the chemical environment of Cu and Al. In-situ DRIFTS indicates that CHxO* species can be formed over different CuZnAl catalysts. However, the formed CHxO* species will be rapidly hydrogenated to produce methanol on CMC catalyst, while the step is inhibited on CZA catalyst. Additionally, a bridge-type adsorbed CO is only observed on CZA catalyst, which is beneficial for the formation of CHx intermediates, leading to the formation of ethanol and higher alcohols.