One Pot Synthesis of Ultra-High Copper Contented Cu/SBA-15 Material as Excellent Catalyst in the Hydrogenation of Dimethyl Oxalate to Ethylene Glycol

High copper contented mesoporous Cu/SBA-15 catalysts with high copper dispersion were successfully synthesized via the simple ammonia-driving deposition-precipitation method. The physicochemical properties of these Cu/SBA-15 catalysts have been studied through various characterization methods such as BET, XRD, SEM, TEM and TPR. The catalytic activities of these catalysts were determined on the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate (DMO) to ethylene glycol (EG) under gas-phase fixed-bed conditions at high space-time yield. The results revealed that the high copper contented Cu/SBA-15 catalyst still has high specific area, proper pore volume and mesoporous structure, and the catalysts showed much high activities compared to the one prepared by impregnation method. This finding opens a new avenue for the selection of better catalyst for the hydrogenation of DMO to EG.