Boron-doped lamellar porous carbon supported copper catalyst for dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation

Doping heteroatoms on carbon materials could bring some special advantages for using as catalyst support.In this work, a boron doped lamellar porous carbon(B-LPC) was prepared facilely and utilized as carbonbased support to construct Cu/B-LPC catalyst for dimethyl oxalate(DMO) hydrogenation. Doping boron could make the B-LPC own more defects on surface and bigger pore size than B-free LPC, which were beneficial to disperse and anchor Cu nanoparticles. Moreover, the interaction between Cu species and B-LPC could be strengthened by the doped B, which not only stabilized the Cu nanoparticles, but also tuned the valence of Cu species to maintain more Cu^(+). Therefore, the B-doped Cu/B-LPC catalyst exhibited stronger hydrogenation ability and obtained higher alcohols selectivity than Cu/LPC, as well as high stability without decrease of DMO conversion and ethylene glycol selectivity even after 300 h of reaction at 240℃.

Ultra-stable Cu-based catalyst for dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation to ethylene glycol

Dimethyl oxalate(DMO) hydrogenation is a crucial step in the coal to ethylene glycol(CTEG) process.Herein, Cu catalyst supported on fibrous mesoporous silica(Cu/FMS) was synthesized via liquid phase deposition technique and applied for the DMO hydrogenation to EG. The catalyst exhibited a remarkable EG selectivity of 96.95% and maintained its activity without deactivation for 1000 h. Fibers of FMS support and liquid phase deposition technology cooperated to give high dispersion of Cu species in the Cu/FMS catalyst, resulting in a high Cu surface area. The formation of Si—O—Cu during catalyst preparation process increased the Cu^(+)/(Cu^(0)+ Cu^(+)) ratio and enhanced the thermal and valence stability of Cu species.The high Cu^(+) surface area and Cu stability(thermal and valence stability) of the Cu/FMS catalyst were key factors for achieving superior EG selectivity and ultra-high stability.