The Role of the Oxide Component in the Development of Copper Composite Catalysts for Methanol Synthesis

摘要

The development and optimization of industrially applied high-performance catalysts is usually a continuous process that is to a large extent based on the experience of the manufacturer. The accumulated knowledge from the combination of empirical trial-and-error experimentation and a subsequent structure-function-relationship-guided optimization approach within the boundary conditions of a feasible and scalable synthesis often leads to very complex recipes, which are sometimes generalized as the "black magic" of catalyst preparation. In the last few years, we have worked on better understanding of the synthesis and functionality of the Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 methanol synthesis catalyst using the well-documented industrially applied preparation route as starting point. As a result of this effort, we have elaborated a model of the so-called "chemical memory of catalyst preparation and of the active site in this catalyst system. Herein, we show how this knowledge can be applied to develop a new family of copper-based catalysts.