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Control of Thickness and Chemical Properties of Atomic Layer Deposition Overcoats for Stabilizing Cu/γ‐Al 2 O 3 Catalysts
Author(s) -
O'Neill Brandon J.,
Sener Canan,
Jackson David H. K.,
Kuech Thomas F.,
Dumesic James A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201402832
Subject(s) - catalysis , atomic layer deposition , copper , nanoparticle , sintering , leaching (pedology) , chemical engineering , materials science , layer (electronics) , liquid phase , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , nanotechnology , composite material , metallurgy , organic chemistry , environmental science , physics , soil science , engineering , soil water , thermodynamics
Whereas sintering and leaching of copper nanoparticles during liquid‐phase catalytic processing can be prevented by using atomic layer deposition (ALD) to overcoat the nanoparticles with AlO x , this acidic overcoat leads to reversible deactivation of the catalyst by resinification and blocking of the pores within the overcoat during hydrogenation of furfural. We demonstrate that decreasing the overcoat thickness from 45 to 5 ALD cycles is an effective method to increase the rate per gram of catalyst and to decrease the rate of deactivation for catalysts pretreated at 673 K, and a fully regenerable copper catalyst can be produced with only five ALD cycles of AlO x . Moreover, although an overcoat of MgO x does not lead to stabilization of copper nanoparticles against sintering and leaching during liquid‐phase hydrogenation reactions, the AlO x overcoat can be chemically modified to decrease acidity and deactivation through the addition of MgO x , while maintaining stability of the copper nanoparticles.