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Heterogeneously Catalyzed Oxidation Reactions Using ... - CHEC

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2.2 Catalyst synthesis for oxidation reactions<br />

Prominent examples for this synthesis route are the Cu‐ZnO‐Al2O3 catalysts for industrial methanol<br />

synthesis [11]. The final structure is tunable both by the pH during precipitation and the aging time.<br />

BET surface area (m 2 /g)<br />

1050<br />

1000<br />

950<br />

900<br />

52 %<br />

Figure 2‐3: BET surface area of MCM‐41 as a function of Cu doping; (■) Cu doping only (●) Cu and Al doping<br />

(same wt.‐% as Cu); columns: 2,3,6‐trimethylphenol conversion with 2% Cu‐MCM‐41 (left) and 2% Cu‐2%Al‐<br />

MCM‐41 (right) [38].<br />

Coprecipitation is a flexible method. Where supported CuxO nanoparticles are desired these<br />

can be obtained by increasing the Cu concentration when aiming for CuO/Al2O3 [43, 44] and other<br />

catalysts [40] which is also true for the other synthesis methods described in the previous section, i.e.<br />

sol‐gel and hydrothermal synthesis. Another method frequently used is impregnation of a solid<br />

support [43, 45‐50]. Interestingly, CuO supported on Al2O3 is the catalyst synthesized most often by<br />

impregnation, though in many reports impregnation was shown to afford inferior catalysts compared<br />

to other synthesis techniques. A method which is often used for the synthesis of nanogold catalysts is<br />

deposition‐precipitation. This method is also useful for synthesizing metallic Cu nanoparticles on a<br />

support [51‐53]. Briefly, deposition‐precipitation is done by mixing a dispersion of the support with a<br />

solution of the Cu ion followed by subsequent increase of the pH to a moderately alkaline level<br />

causing precipitation. After filtration and drying, metallic finely dispersed Cu nanoparticles are<br />

obtained by hydrogen treatment at elevated temperatures. Colloidal methods are reported by the<br />

group of Schüth [54]. Nanoparticles in the range of 5 nm were obtained by reduction of copper<br />

acetylacetonate with trialkylaluminium which also serves as a stabilizer. Note that metallic copper<br />

particles are oxidized when exposed to oxygen. Their use is therefore limited to oxidation reactions<br />

under oxygen‐lean conditions. Of course, CuxO particles or metallic‐core/oxidic shell particles can be<br />

obtained from oxidation of metallic nanoparticles [55].<br />

0 1 2 3 4 5<br />

13<br />

64 %<br />

Cu (wt.-%)

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