In situ study of the selective oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde on copper

Combined use of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and in situ mass spectrometry made it possible to simultaneously obtain the O1s spectra and the mass spectrometric signal of formaldehyde (m/z = 30) in the course of heating (420-670 K) of polycrystalline foil in a flow of the reaction mixture of methanol and oxygen (with a total pressure of 0.1 mbar and a ratio of 3/1). It is shown that the O1s spectra contain two lines with E-b = 530.1 and 531.2 eV, whose relative intensities depend on the sample temperature. At a low temperature (420 K) the line with a lower binding energy dominates, whereas sample heating leads to a drastic decrease in its intensity and its replacement by a line with a higher value of E-b. A decrease in the intensity of the latter line occurs at T > 550 K, in the same temperature range as a drastic increase in the intensity of the formaldehyde signal. These lines were assigned on the basis of literature data and data obtained by the authors for the known forms of oxygen on copper and for the intermediate species of the reaction, such as methoxy and formate. The O1s line with E-b = 530.1 eV was assigned to methoxy groups, and the line with E-b = 531.2 eV was assigned to suboxide oxygen. The correlation of the intensity of the XPS signal of suboxide oxygen with the yield of formaldehyde was supported by stationary experiments using in situ XPS that prove its participation in the key step of the selective oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde.