Mechanistic Aspects of Hydrogen Production by Partial Oxidation of Methanol Over Cu/ZnO Catalysts

In this work, mechanistic aspects of the partial oxidation of methanol (POM) to hydrogen and carbon dioxide over Cu/ZnO catalysts have been investigated. The data obtained with different catalyst compositions and different Cu^o metal surface areas showed that the reaction depends on the presence of both the phases ZnO and Cu^o. On the other hand, for catalysts with Cu concentrations in the range 40-60 wt%, the copper metal surface area seems to be the main factor determining the reaction rate. Kinetic isotope effects using CH₃OH and CH₃OD showed that both C–H and O–H bonds are at least partially involved in the rate-limiting step. TPD experiments with pure Cu^o, pure ZnO and the catalyst Cu/ZnO showed that methanol can be activated by both ZnO and copper. On the ZnO surface methanol can form intermediates which in the presence of copper might react and desorb more easily probably via a reverse spillover process. The isotopic product distribution of H₂, HD, D₂, H₂O, HDO and D₂O in the temperature-programmed reaction of CH₃OD revealed a slight enrichment of the products with H, suggesting that during methanol activation on the ZnO some of the D atoms might be retained by the support. The effect of oxygen partial pressure suggests that oxygen atoms on the copper surface strongly promote methanol activation and H₂ and CO₂ formation. It is proposed that oxygen atoms participate in methanol activation by the abstraction of the hydroxyl H atom to form methoxide and OH_surf. This OH_surf species rapidly loses H to the surface regenerating the O_surf.