Effect of irradiation power and time on ultrasound assisted co-precipitation of nanostructured CuO-ZnO-Al2O3 over HZSM-5 used for direct conversion of syngas to DME as a green fuel

Nanostructured CuO-ZnO-Al2O3/HZSM-5 catalyst has been prepared by an ultrasound-assisted co-precipitation hybrid method. Effect of power and irradiation time have been studied by changing the time (30-45-60 min) and power of sonication (50-100-150 W) during the synthesis which lead to different physiochemical properties of the catalyst. The XRD, FESEM, EDX, FTIR and BET analyses exhibited smaller particles with higher surface area and less population of particle aggregates at longer and highly irradiated catalysts. Study on the performance of investigated catalysts in direct synthesis of DME from syngas showed ultrasound-assisted co-precipitated synthesized catalysts have superior reactivity and stability compared with non-sonicated catalyst. Among sonicated catalysts, with increasing power and time of irradiation, the catalyst represents higher activity and DME selectivity.