CO Hydrogenation to Methanol over Mesoporous SiO-Coated Cu-Based Catalysts.

Although chemical promotion led to essential improvements in Cu-based catalysts for CO hydrogenation to methanol, surpassing structural limitations such as active phase aggregation under reaction conditions remains challenging. In this report, we improved the textural properties of Cu/InO/CeO and Cu/InO/ZrO catalysts by coating the nanoparticles with a mesoporous SiO shell. This strategy limited particle size up to 3.5 nm, increasing metal dispersion and widening the metal-metal oxide interface region. Chemometric analysis revealed that these structures could maintain high activity and selectivity in a wide range of reaction conditions, with methanol space-time yields up to 4 times higher than those of the uncoated catalysts.