J. Vanbeijnum et al., SILICA-SUPPORTED COPPER IRON CATALYSTS FOR HYDROGENOLYSIS REACTIONS CHARACTERIZED BY MOSSBAUER-SPECTROSCOPY, Hyperfine interactions, 93(1-4), 1994, pp. 1777-1782
A special preparation procedure has been developed to provide a very u
niform distribution of iron throughout the copper precursor supported
on silica. The best performance for hydrogenolysis of methyl acetate h
as been obtained for a catalyst prepared in a onestep procedure, in wh
ich iron(III) and copper(II) were injected together into a suspension
of silica at a constant pH level. It is found that the main part of th
e iron has been incorporated into the formed copper hydrosilicate. Aft
er reduction and under reaction conditions, only about 6% of the iron
atoms are in the Fe-0 state. This Fe-0 is expected to be responsible f
or the enhancement of the catalyst activity in hydrogenation and hydro
genolysis reactions.