Promoting effect of polyoxyethylene octylphenol ether on Cu/ZnO catalysts for low-temperature methanol synthesis

Cu/ZnO catalysts were prepared by the co-precipitation method with the addition of OP-10 (polyoxyethylene octylphenol ether) and were chemically and structurally characterized by means of XRD, BET, H₂-TPR, CO-TPD and N₂O-titration. The effect of OP-10 addition on the activity of Cu/ZnO for the slurry phase methanol synthesis at 150 °C was evaluated. The results showed that Cu/ZnO prepared with addition of 8% OP-10 (denoted as C8) exhibited the promoted activity for the methanol synthesis. The conversion of CO and the STY (space time yield) of methanol were 42.5% and 74.6% higher than those of Cu/ZnO prepared without addition of OP-10 (denoted as C0), respectively. The precursor of C8 contained more aurichalcite and rosasite, and the concerted effect of Cu-Zn in C8 was found to be stronger than that in C0. Compared with C0, C8 showed smaller particle size, lower reduction temperature and larger BET and Cu surface areas.