Redispersion and Stabilization of Cu/MFI Catalysts by the Encapsulation Method for Ethanol Dehydrogenation

Encapsulation of metal particles with ordered porous zeolite is a promising method to stabilize nanoparticles. In this work, Cu/MFI catalysts prepared by the impregnation method were encapsulated with MFI to yield (Cu/MFI)@MFI catalysts for ethanol dehydrogenation. The encapsulation process not only anchored Cu particles into MFI but also redispersed Cu with decreased particle sizes and newly formed Cu+ species. During the ethanol dehydrogenation reaction, the Cu+ and Cu0 species confined in (Cu/MFI)@MFI catalysts demonstrated synergistic effects and afforded 95.7% acetaldehyde selectivity, 97.2% ethanol conversion at 523 K, and a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 0.53 h-1 in the 200 h time on stream over the optimized (Cu/MFI)@MFI 100% catalyst, which is significantly better than the counterpart of the Cu/MFI catalyst.