Investigation on Process Mechanism on Cu-Cr Catalysts for Ethanol Dehydrogenation to Ethyl Acetate

The Cu-Cr catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation method,and the role of active sites on Cu-Cr catalyst for direct synthesis of ethyl acetate from ethanol was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by means of XRD, TEM, XPS, ethanol-TPSR, EA-TPD and FT-IR etc., respectively. The results show that the outermost surface layer of Cu-Cr catalysts after reduction is composed of Cu-0, Cr2O3 and CuCr2O4 phases. The ethanol dehydrogenation step is carried out on Cu-0 active sites, but the selectivity of ethyl acetate is not remarkably influenced by the properties of Cu-0 active sites, the proper performances of Lewis acidic sites on the Cu-Cr catalyst might play a key role to improve the selectivity of ethyl acetate.