An investigation into the effects of different existing states of aluminum isopropoxide on copper-based catalysts for direct synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas

Abstract

Abstract Aluminum isopropoxide (AIP) is a vital raw material to produce high surface area alumina catalyst, which is used for catalytic applications, such as hydrocracking, Fischer-Tropsch and STD (syngas to dimethyl ether) reactions. However, the different existing states have an effect on hydrolysis and condensation in the process of precursor preparation. The Cu/Zn/Al slurry catalysts were prepared by aluminum isopropoxide, which were liquid state, crystalline state and solid state, utilizing a complete liquid phase preparation technology. In the dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis reaction, the aluminum resource of crystalline state was prepared for slurry catalyst, which presented high CO conversion and DME selectivity of 54.32% and 69.74%, respectively. Characterization results indicated that different forms of AIP have the variant coordination numbers of Al-O and polymerization degrees, and the catalyst prepared by crystalline state consists amount of tetra-coordinated Al and few hexa-coordinated Al, which can exert different hydrolysis and condensation process compared with other aluminum sources, and finally it contributes to the strong interaction between active site copper species and Zn/Al species, confirming more Cu + is responsible for the synthesis of DME in the slurry reactor.