Effect of different metal sulfate precursors on structural and catalytic performance of zirconia in dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether

摘要

ZrO_2 was treated with 10% SO_4^(2-) from different metal sulfate precursors for methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether.All the samples exhibited tetragonal phase and no diffraction peaks corresponding to metal sulfates or metal oxides were observed.The FT-IR results revealed that there were different interactions between sulfate and ZrO_2,and this had a great effect on the surface area of the samples.The catalytic activity was measured over the catalysts in the temperature range of 100-300 ℃.The results revealed that sulfated zirconia with CuSO_4·5 H_2O and Al_2(SO_4)_3·16 H_2O showed the best catalytic activity.The maximum yield of DME ≈87% was obtained over CuSZ at a reaction temperature of 275 ℃.Moreover,the catalytic activity of the catalysts was correlated well with their surface acidity that measured by dehydration of isopropanol.