Preparation and catalytic property of a copper-lanthanide oxide binary system for hydrogenation reaction

The characteristic copper-lanthanide complex oxide of Cu(6)O(8)Ln(NO3) was found to be easily decomposed and reduced under hydrogen atmosphere to form the homogeneous mixture of copper metal and the lanthanide oxide with rela tively high surface area. The catalytic property of the mixture obtained fr om Cu-Yb complex oxide, Cu6O8Yb(NO3), for different types of hydrogenations was investigated. It was confirmed that this mixture exhibited high cataly tic activity for ethene and acetone hydrogenation and the catalytic propert y can be controlled by changing the temperature of hydrogen pretreatment. I t is clear that the highly dispersed lanthanide oxide-copper metal binary c atalyst can be easily and effectively prepared by the decomposition of comp lex oxide precursor under H-2 atmosphere. The affection of the surface stat e of the catalyst to the hydrogenations are also discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.