Selective hydrogenation of ethylene carbonate to methanol and ethylene glycol over Cu/SiO2 catalysts prepared by ammonia evaporation method

Facile Fabrication of Ultrasmall Copper Species Confined in Mesoporous Silica for Chemo‐Selective and Stable Hydrogenation Ethylene Carbonate Derived from CO2

“…As reported in previous literatures for the analogous reaction, Cu/SiO 2 catalysts as a versatile hydrogenation catalyst showed an excellent application in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to EG or ethanol . In particular, heterogeneous copper‐based catalysts, e. g., CuCr 2 O 4 , Cu‐SiO 2 ‐PG, Cu/HMS, Cu/SBA‐15 and Cu/SiO 2 ‐AE were investigated for EC hydrogenation to co‐produce methanol and EG, and displayed relatively good catalytic performance. Among these catalysts tested, a maximum turnover frequency (TOF) of 776 mg EC g cat −1 h −1 was obtained over Cu/SBA‐15.…”

“…For xCu@SiO 2 ‐β‐P catalysts, the surface area of xCu@SiO 2 ‐β‐P catalysts increased firstly when Cu loadings lower than 25 %, while it declined when Cu loadings further elevated to 35 %. Moreover, the pore shape of the xCu@SiO 2 ‐β‐P catalysts changed from “spherical” to “slit‐like” with increasing the copper loading . As shown in Figure b, the pore sizes of xCu@SiO 2 ‐β‐P (x 25 %) and 25Cu@SiO 2 ‐P catalysts distributed between 10–30 nm and the peak of pore distribution shifted right with copper loadings (x<25 %), while the amounts of micropores in xCu@SiO 2 ‐β‐P(x 25 %) showed a dramatic decrease after the nominal copper‐loading over 25 %, which was also observed in the literature .…”

“…The presence of 1502 cm −1 peak in dried precursor was observed, suggesting that the existence of mode ν3 of interlayer carbonate species . The peak around 1027 cm −1 can be assigned to the formation of copper phyllosilicate, which was considered to be originated from the strong interaction between copper species and silica support ,. It can be concluded that the dried precursors xCu@SiO 2 ‐β‐P contained Cu 2 (OH) 3 NO 3 , Cu 2 (OH) 2 CO 3 and copper phyllosilicate, while that of 25Cu@SiO 2 ‐P catalyst contained copper phyllosilicate as well as Cu 2 (OH) 3 NO 3 .…”

“…In recent years, the hydrogenation reaction of ethylene carbonate (EC) to co‐produce important commodities of methanol and ethylene glycol (EG) has attracted special concerns due to the merits of environmentally friendliness, atomic economy and low energy consumption . Therefore, many researchers have devoted great efforts for developing effective catalysts.…”

“…The catalytic activity and stability of the as‐prepared catalysts were enhanced greatly with the formation of dextrin‐coating. Meanwhile, the deactivation reason responsible for the stability was also highly concerned for giving insights into stabilizing mechanism ,,…”