Insight into the Synergism between Copper Species and Surface Defects Influenced by Copper Content over Copper/Ceria Catalysts for the Hydrogenation of Carbonate

Various Cu/CeO 2 nanorod catalysts with different copper contents were synthesized through a facile coprecipitation method for the hydrogenation of diethyl carbonate to methanol in a fixed‐bed reactor. The methanol yield increased upon increasing the copper loading, but large excess amounts of copper led to deactivation of the catalyst at a high liquid hourly space velocity because of aggregation of the active metal. The 20Cu/CeO 2 and 30Cu/CeO 2 catalysts displayed superior catalytic performance with methanol space‐time yields of 8.4 and 8.1 mmol g cat −1 h −1 , respectively. The remarkably enhanced catalytic performance was mainly ascribed to a high Cu 0 surface area, appropriate ratio of Cu + /Cu 0 , and more surface oxygen vacancies associated with Ce 3+ , which stemmed from a strong interaction between Cu and the CeO 2 support.