Preparation of CuIY catalyst using CuCl2 as precursor for vapor phase oxidative carbonylation of methanol to dimethyl carbonate

CuIY catalyst was prepared by heating the mixture of CuCl2 and acidic Y zeolite under flowing nitrogen and characterized by TG/DTG, XRD and elementary analysis techniques. The experimental result indicate that when the heating temperature was from 350 °C to 500 °C, the CuCl2 of the CuCl2 and acidic Y zeolite mixture sample decompose to CuCl and Cl2 gas, then the produced CuCl reacted with the Brønsted acid center H+ of Y zeolite to form CuIY catalyst by the solid-state ion-exchanged reaction. The amount of ion-exchanged CuI in the CuIY catalyst reached the maximum of 0.1 mol/g when the heating temperature was 650 °C, and the catalyst exhibited the best catalytic activity, the conversion of methanol (CMeOH), the selectivity and the space–time yield of dimethyl carbonate (SDMC and STY) reached 4.36%, 74.55% and 97.32 mg/(g h), respectively.