Enhanced catalytic performance for direct synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas over a La2O3 modified Cu-ZrO2/γ-Al2O3 hybrid catalyst

A series of hybrid catalysts were made by physically mixing Cu-ZrO 2 and γ-Al 2 O 3,for former it was modified with different loadings of La 2 O 3 prepared by co-precipitation method.The catalysts were characterized by BET,XRD,N 2 O-adsorption,EXAFS,H 2-TPR,NH 3-TPD techniques and evaluated in the synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas.The results show that La 2 O 3 promoted catalysts displayed a significantly better catalytic performance compared with Cu-ZrO 2 /γ-Al 2 O 3 catalyst in CO conversion and DME selectivity,and the optimum catalytic activity was obtained when the content of La 2 O 3 was 12 wt%.The characterizations reveal that high copper dispersion,facile reducibility of copper particles and appropriate amount of acidic sites are responsible for the superior catalytic performance.