Ethanol dehydrogenative reactions catalyzed by copper supported on porous Al–Mg mixed oxides

for the non-porous reference catalyst and for the porous one, respectively. Both catalysts deactivated due to copper particles sintering, however the porous one deactivated less, as a consequence of the better dispersion of the Cu species on the macro and mesoporous support. Acetaldehyde was the main product, however by increasing the contact time by 6.6 times, the conversion of ethanol on the non-porous catalyst reached about 90% with a selectivity to ethyl acetate of 20% by means of the coupling reaction of ethanol and acetaldehyde. The selectivity to ethyl acetate was favoured on an increased support/copper interface that is given by larger copper particles.