Influence of Cu2+-doped FeMgO nanomaterials on the dehydrogenation and dehydration of ethanol

Abstract

Nanoparticles of iron oxide supported on MgO were prepared by wet impregnation method with loadings varied over 0.02– 0.25 mol Fe2O3 to 0.1 mol MgO. The effects of Cu2+ doping on the surface and catalytic properties of Fe2O3/MgO system have been investigated. The extent of Iron oxide loading was fixed at 10 mol % and the CuO dopant concentration was varied between 1 and 7mol%. Pure and the treated samples were subjected to heat treatment at 500oC. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, HRTEM, SBETmeasurements and catalytic conversion of ethanol by flow method to yield ethylene and acetaldehyde. The particles of all samples have a uniform cube like with irregular shapes. Increasing the Fe2O3 content to 10 mol % led to increasing the catalytic activity and selectivity to ethylene formation, however, the activity decreases above this limit.Cu2+ doping increases the catalytic activity of Fe2O3/MgO catalyst towards the dehydrogenation of ethanol and all CuFeMgO samples are selective to acetaldehyde with 100%.