Production of glycerol carbonate by coupling glycerol and CO2 over various metal oxide catalyst

Abstract

A series of metal oxides, i.e., CuO、NiO、Co₃O₄、ZrO₂、Al₂O₃, catalysts were prepared by hydrothermal method and evaluated in the production of glycerol carbonate by coupling of glycerol and CO₂ under lower temperature. The results show that CuO showed the best catalytic performance (glycerol conversion and the glycerol carbonate selectivity were 89.0 % and 69.4 %, respectively) at 120 ℃ under 3.0 MPa of CO₂ for 5 h. This is the highest yield of glycerol carbonate using same mothed reported in the literature so far. The structures, morphologies and surface properties of the catalysts were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N₂ adsorption-desorption, Temperature programmed reduction (H₂-TPR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Temperature programmed desorption (TPD). It is speculated that the high catalytic activity of CuO mainly depends on its unique structure and acid-base physicochemical properties. In addition, the CuO catalyst was used 7 times without obvious deactivation, which suggesting this catalysis has excellent reusability.