Chemical and Physical Properties of Copper-Based Catalysts for CO Shift Reaction and Methanol Synthesis

The modern low-pressure methanol synthesis catalysts are based on copper-containing systems such as Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ and Cu/ZnO/Cr₂O₃ with various compositions. These catalysts are also highly active for the low-temperature CO shift reaction. For both reactions the nature of the active sites is still an open question.