Enhanced catalytic performance for direct synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas over a La2O3 modified Cu-ZrO2/γ-Al2O3 hybrid catalyst

A series of hybrid catalysts were made by physically mixing Cu-ZrO2 and γ-Al2O3, for former it was modified with different loadings of La2O3 prepared by co-precipitation method. The catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, N2O-adsorption, EXAFS, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD techniques and evaluated in the synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas. The results show that La2O3 promoted catalysts displayed a significantly better catalytic performance compared with Cu-ZrO2/γ-Al2O3 catalyst in CO conversion and DME selectivity, and the optimum catalytic activity was obtained when the content of La2O3 was 12 wt%. The characterizations reveal that high copper dispersion, facile reducibility of copper particles and appropriate amount of acidic sites are responsible for the superior catalytic performance.