γ-Al۲O۳ catalysts synthesis with different aluminum sources for methanoldehydration to dimethyl ether

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a versatile multi-source multi-purpose chemical being projected tobecome one of the main chemical feedstocks in the ۲۱st century. It is a non-toxic, eco-friendly andeasily condensable gas that can be used both as a fuel or as a chemical feedstock [۱]. DME can beproduced by methanol dehydration. In this study, three γ-Al۲O۳ catalysts for methanol dehydrationto DME were synthesized by the precipitation method using different aluminum sources (Table۱). The activity of the catalysts was compared with a commercially available γ-alumina catalyst.The result showed that the Al precursor strongly affected the structural properties and catalyticperformance with the catalyst produced from aluminum nitrate had the highest catalyticperformance under the same reaction conditions, being comparable with the commercial γ-Al۲O۳.As a general trend, catalytic performance improved significantly with increasing specific surfacearea and pore volume of the catalysts, which are in turn a function of the textural properties andcrystallinity of the sample. These caharactristics favor the availability and accessibility of acidicactive sites to methanol reactant. In contrasrt, samples with low porosity and/or smaller crystallitesize are less active, most probably due to their predominant amorphous nature [۲].

کلیدواژه ها:

γ-Al۲O۳ synthesis ، Methanol dehydration ، Dimethyl ether ، Catalyic performance