Pure monoclinic ZrO2 prepared by hydrothermal method for isosynthesis

A novel hydrothermal method using urea as precipitate was applied to prepare pure monoclinic ZrO2 for isosynthesis. Conventional methods, such as precipitation method and refluxing method were also employed to prepare ZrO2 for comparison. The as-synthesized ZrO2 samples were characterized by N-2 physisorption, TEM, powder X-ray diffraction, NH3- and CO2-TPD. Reaction results showed that ZrO2 catalyst prepared by hydrothermal method exhibited the best catalytic performance in isosynthesis, over which as high as 30.2% CO conversion and 90.3% i-C-4 content in C-4 hydrocarbons were achieved. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.