Study of carbon monoxide hydrogenation over supported Au catalysts

Recently, there has been a marked increase in the interest shown in catalysis by gold. It is now recognised that gold has unique properties as a catalyst for many reactions with pre-eminence in the oxidation of carbon monoxide. However, it is also known that supported gold catalysts can be used for other reactions involving carbon monoxide, for example the water gas shift reaction. Supported gold catalysts have also been shown to be effective for hydrogenation reactions. This paper reports the possible use of gold as a catalyst for the hydrogenation of carbon monoxide. In particular, we describe the preparation and characterisation of Au/ZnO and Au/Fe2O3 as catalysts for CO hydrogenation and for the synthesis of alcohols in particular. Alcohols including methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol and 1-butanol have been successfully synthesised at 300 °C at a pressure of 25 bar over supported Au catalysts. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved