Seeding as a Decisive Tool for Increasing Space-Time-Yields in the Preparation of High-Quality Cu/ZnO/ZrO2 Catalysts

Aging is one of the key steps in the preparation of highly active Cu/ZnO-based catalysts for use in the production of methanol. If certain pH and temperature specifications are met, an initially amorphous precipitate transforms into the crystalline precursor phase of zincian malachite, which is characterized by a periodic arrangement of Cu and Zn atoms and has proven advantageous for the quality of the final catalyst. However, aging generally takes between 30 min and multiple hours until the desired phase transformation is completed. With our study, we show that aging can be significantly accelerated by seeding the freshly precipitated suspension with already aged zincian malachite crystals: the necessary aging time was reduced by 41% for seeding mass fractions as low as 3 wt.% and from 83 min to less than 2 min for 30 wt.% seeds. No negative influence of seeding on the phase composition, specific surface area, molar metal ratios, or the morphology of the aged precursor could be identified. Consequently, the catalyst performance in the synthesis of methanol from CO2, as well as from a CO/CO2 mixture, was identical to a catalyst from an unseeded preparation and showed small advantages compared to a commercial sample. Thus, we conclude that seeding is a vital tool to accelerate the preparation of all Cu/Zn-based catalysts while maintaining product quality, presumably also on an industrial scale.