An Effective CuZn-SiO2 Bimetallic Catalyst Prepared by Hydrolysis Precipitation Method for the Hydrogenation of Methyl Acetate to Ethanol

A highly active CuZn-SiO2 catalyst with excellent stability in hydrogenation of methyl acetate (MA) was fabricated by the hydrolysis precipitation (HP) method. The HP method caused notable high dispersion of both copper and zinc species due to the strong interaction between metal species and silica support caused by the pseudo-homogeneous reaction during the mixing process. According to the linear correlation between the TOF (Cu+) and Zn/Cu ratio, the Cu+ was considered the predominant active site, and the Cu+ site derived from the strong interaction between copper and zinc species has higher activity than those Cu+ species generated from copper phyllosilicate. Compared to the CuZnO/Al2O3 and Cu-SiO2 catalysts, the Cu9Zn1-SiO2 catalyst displayed the highest catalytic activity on account of the high dispersion of active species and the enhanced ability of Cu species on ester adsorption by stronger Cu-ZnO interaction.