A new low-cost and effective method for enhancing the catalytic performance of Cu–SiO2 catalysts for the synthesis of ethylene glycol via the vapor-phase hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate by coating the catalysts with dextrin

Abstract The influence of low-cost dextrin coating on the performance of Cu–SiO 2 catalysts for the vapor-phase hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate (DMO) to ethylene glycol (EG) was systematically investigated. On the 0.05D-Cu–SiO 2 catalyst, 99.8% DMO conversion and 92.3% EG selectivity could be obtained at 463 K under 2.0 g g -catal −1  h −1 weight liquid hourly space velocity, which is almost four times higher than that of the catalyst without coating with dextrin. Characterization methods including N 2 physisorption, XRD, TEM, H 2 TPR, and XPS were carried out to elucidate the structure–performance relationship. Experimental results indicated that copper phyllosilicate contents decreased while well-dispersed CuO and Cu–O–Si units increased. The improved morphology with more compact nanosized crystalline copper structure resulted in more Cu + species, which lead to better DMO conversion and EG selectivity in a long-term stability test.