ZnO

For the hydrogenolysis of butyl butyrate into butanol, Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts are prepared using normal precipitation (NP) and reverse precipitation (RP) methods. The activity trends of NP-series and RP-series catalysts are different as a function of the Cu/Zn ratio. Through several characterization techniques, the major differences between both series of catalyst samples are caused by the high-temperature carbonate (HT-CO3) present in the precursor phase. The butanol productivity of RP-series catalysts is thus found to be associated with the HT-CO3 amount in precursor and calcined samples, while it shows a linear relationship with the copper surface area. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This research was financially supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea (Grant No. 2012R1A1A1007866), as well as Converging Technology Project (ARQ201206071) funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment