Preparation and Characterization of Cuprous Chloride Catalyst for Direct Synthesis of Triethoxysilane

This work presents a novel method for the synthesis of cuprous chloride (CuCl) catalyst. The CuCl powder is prepared by one-step cocurrent flow reaction of CuSO4 center dot 5H(2)O with NaCl in a thermostatic water bath at different reduction temperatures of 45 degrees C, 50 degrees C and 60 degrees C. Sodium bisulfite and sodium carbonate are fed in parallel into a flask in 40 to 60 minutes and with a mole ratio of 4:1. Thereafter, the prepared powder is characterized. The result of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) shows that the powder consists of CuCl with well crystallization. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images indicate that the morphology of the samples exhibits a regular 2D flake structure. In addition, results of BET and BJH methods show that the CuCl powder has a larger surface area. The CuCl catalyst is used for the reaction of silicon with ethanol to produce triethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane and thereby its activity is evaluated. It is found that the reaction selectivity to triethoxysilane depends on the amount of the catalyst. Finally, based on the results obtained the reaction mechanism on the silicon surface is proposed.