Dehydrogenation of methanol to methyl formate over CuO-SiO2 gel catalyst

CuO-SiO2 gel catalysts were prepared by sol-gel method and were characteriz ed by W-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction ( XRD) and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). It was found that the copp er loadings have a strong influence on the reduction and catalytic properti es of CuO-SiO2 gels. A great part of copper oxide is highly dispersed as co nfirmed by TPR, XRD and DRS data. The catalysts are shown to be active and selective toward methyl formate formation in methanol dehydrogenation due t o the presence of highly dispersed copper over SiO2.