Highly active methanol steam reforming Cu/ZnO catalyst derived from high purity aurichalcite precursor prepared by ammonia complex dissociation precipitation method

The Cu/ZnO catalyst is prepared by a precipitation method of ammonium complex dissociation. It is found that the structure of Cu/ZnO is determined by the purity of its precursor, which is affected by the copper ion concentration. The existence of CuxZn1-xO solid solution and some lattice oxygen defects in the generated Cu/ZnO catalyst are in favor of forming highly dispersed small copper particles. Thus, the obtained catalyst shows excellent catalytic performance in the methanol steam reforming reaction. The findings of this work might open a new approach for the convenient preparation of excellent Cu/ZnO catalyst.