Hydrophobic dual metal silicate nanotubes for higher alcohol synthesis

Herein, a hydrophobic CuCoSNTs-c catalyst with hollow tubular structure and mesoporous wall was synthesized successfully for higher alcohol synthesis (HAS). The tubular CuCoSNTs-c was constructed with elaborately designed hydrophobic and aerophilic properties to suppress the formation of C1 molecules and enhance the CO conversion and C2+OH selectivity. The mesoporous wall exposed the active sites sufficiently, and the macro-scopic tubular channel improved the mass transfer kinetics and accelerated the desorption of alcohol products. Moreover, the hydrophobic and aerophilic tube wall could modulate the local microenvironment of CuCoSNTs-c, that is, enriching the H2 and CO molecules around the CuCo active sites and rapidly desorbing the in-situ pro-duced water molecules in HAS. The hydrophobic multifunctional CuCoSNTs-c catalyst suppressed the selectivity of CO2 to less than 1.2%, while achieving a C2+OH selectivity of up to 66.6% at a CO conversion of 80.4%. This catalyst demonstrated excellent stability for 360 h without obvious activity loss.

Automated summary

In this study, a hydrophobic CuCoSNTs-c catalyst with a hollow tubular structure and mesoporous wall was successfully synthesized for higher alcohol synthesis (HAS). The synthesized catalyst exhibited excellent stability for 360 h without obvious activity loss and suppressed the selectivity of CO2 to less than 1.2%, while achieving a C2+OH selectivity of up to 66.6% at a CO conversion of 80.4%. Furthermore, the elaborately designed hydrophobic and aerophilic properties of the CuCoSNTs-c catalyst played a crucial role in enhancing CO conversion and C2+OH selectivity.