Preparation and characterization of ultrafine Fe-Cu-based catalysts for CO hydrogenation

The ultrafine particles of a new style Fe-Cu-based catalysts for CO hydrogenation were prepared by impregnating the organic sol of Fe（OH）3 and Cu（OH）2 onto the activated Al2O3, in which the organic sol of Fe（OH）3 and Cu（OH）2 were prepared in the microemulsion of dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid sodium（S）/n-butanol（A）/toluene（O）/water with V（A）/V（O） = 0.25 and W（A）/W（S） = 1.50. This catalyst was characterized by particle size analysis, XRD and TG. The results of particle size analysis showed that Fe（OH）3 particles with a mean size of 17.1 nm and Cu（OH）2 particles with an average size of 6.65 um were obtained. TG analysis and XRD patterns suggested that 673 K is the optimal calcination temperature. CO hydrogenation produced C＋OH with a high selectivity above 58 wt% by using the ultrafine particles as catalyst, and the total alcohol yield of 0.250 g·ml^-1 ·h^-1 was obtained when the contents of Al2O3 and K were 88.61 wt% and 1.60 wt%, respectively.