Production of cobalt-copper from partial reduction of La(Co,Cu)O3 perovskites for CO hydrogenation

La(CoCuO3) nanoperovskites have been prepared by the mechano-synthesis method and treated with hydrogen to yield a high dispersion of bimetallic CoCu sites. The reduced LaCo1-xCuxO3 samples were characterized by XRD, H2-TPR, CO and H2 chemisorption and tested for CO dissociation and for alcohol synthesis from syngas. The experimental results indicated that the activities in CO dissociation and hydrogenation on copper-cobalt metals extracted from perovskite lattice crystals are significantly different from those in the extra-perovskite lattice. The overall catalytic activity in syngas conversion is correlated with the CoCu metal surface, but the alcohol productivity e productivity of alcohols decreases in the order of LaCo0.7Cu0.3O3 > LaCo0.4Cu0.6O3 > Cu2O/LaCoO3 > LaCo0.9Cu0.1O3 > LaCoO3. The highest catalytic activity and alcohol productivity was obtained over sample of the reduced LaCo0.7Cu0.3O3 perovskite catalyst.