TITLE: Probe molecule studies: Active species in alcohol synthesis. Tenth quarterly report, January 1993--March 1993.

AUTHOR: D. G. Blackmond;   I. Wender;   R. Oukaci;   J. Wang.

INST.  AUTHOR: Pittsburgh Univ., PA. Dept. of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.

SPONSOR: Department of Energy, Washington, DC.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE],  Mar 93,  8p.

NTIS ORDER NO.: DE93017726INW

ABSTRACT:

The goal of this research is to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms of formation of alcohols and other oxygenates from syngas over supported catalysts. Probe molecules are added in situ during the reaction to help delineate reaction pathways and identify reaction intermediate species. The key of our study is to investigate how the species generated by these probe molecules interact with surface species present during oxygenate formation. The catalysts chosen for this investigation is Co/Cu/ZnO/Al(sub 2)O(sub 3). Detailed motivations for studying this system as well as using CH(sub 3)NO(sub 2) as the probe molecule were given in a previous report. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiments were carried out on calcined and reduced samples of Co(0%)/Cu/ZnO and Co(10%)/Cu/ZnO catalysts. The extent of reduction of the copper and cobalt phases in the Co(0,5 and l0%)/Cu/ZnO catalysts was estimated from XPS, TPR, and XRD results. (C) A Co(5%) /Al/(sub 2)O(sub 3) catalyst was prepared to be used as a base catalyst for the study of probe molecule addition. CO hydrogenation under the same conditions used before was conducted over the Co(5%)/Al(sub 2)O(sub 3) catalyst as well as a Co/Cu/ZnO/Al(sub 2)O(sub 3) catalyst (ZC45) prepared by coprecipitation method.

REPORT  NUMBER: DOE/PC/90305-T11

CONTRACT  NUMBER: FG22-90PC90305