Redispersion and Stabilization of Cu/MFI Catalysts by the Encapsulation Method for Ethanol Dehydrogenation
Jifeng Pang, Ming Yin, Pengfei Wu, Lei Song, Xianquan Li, Tao Zhang, Mingyuan Zheng
Abstract
Encapsulation of metal particles with ordered porous zeolite is a promising method to stabilize nanoparticles. In this work, Cu/MFI catalysts prepared by the impregnation method were encapsulated with MFI to yield (Cu/MFI)@MFI catalysts for ethanol dehydrogenation. The encapsulation process not only anchored Cu particles into MFI but also redispersed Cu with decreased particle sizes and newly formed Cu + species. During the ethanol dehydrogenation reaction, the Cu + and Cu 0 species confined in (Cu/MFI)@MFI catalysts demonstrated synergistic effects and afforded 95.7% acetaldehyde selectivity, 97.2% ethanol conversion at 523 K, and a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 0.53 h –1 in the 200 h time on stream over the optimized (Cu/MFI)@MFI 100% catalyst, which is significantly better than the counterpart of the Cu/MFI catalyst.