Methanol synthesis novel precipitation

This paper reviews research and development In several areas of methanol synthesis technology. Alternatives to the co-precipitated Cu-ZnO-A O and Cu-ZnO-CrgOj catalysts are considered first. Novel processes for syngas conversion are then reviewed, and the paper ends with a discussion of direct conversion of methane to methanol by partial oxidation of natural gas. 

Kaluza S, Behrens M, Schiefenhovel N, Kniep B, Fischer R, Schlogl R, Muhler M (2011) A novel synthesis route for Cu/Zn0/Al203 catalysts used in methanol synthesis combining continuous consecutive precipitation with continuous aging of the precipitate. ChemCatChem 3 189-199... 

Fig. 6.7. Copper-based catalysts for methanol synthesis. A novel device for controlled precipitation enabled separation of blue from green products. Structural analysis (top left) revealed that the blue products are disordered nanocrystalline materials furnishing poor catalysts. The green products are mixtures of two phases, malachite (violet) and auricalcite (red). By systematically optimizing the reaction conditions it was possible to prepare phase-pure green products and thereby to improve thesynthesisofthe working catalyst based on pure malachite precursors. In the X-ray diffraction pattern (top right), the features are labeled by the Miller Indices, indicating the diffraction lattice plane of the crystal °29 is the diffraction angle.

Monomethacrylate-functionalized POSS reagents are capable of being polymerized into novel linear silsesquioxane-based materials. Efforts to copolymerize these methacrylate-functionalized POSS with other acryhc comonomers have been successful [96,112]. In a typical polymer synthesis, a 0.5 M toluene solution of macromonomer was prepared, to which 2,2 -azobis(iso-butyronitrile) (AIBN) based on macromonomer was added from a stock solution. The clear solution was heated at 60 °C for 24 h and then precipitated into methanol. Further purification was performed by reprecipitation from toluene into methanol to yield white powder. 

Polystyrene Nanoparticles. Pol3mier-based nanoparticles are used in several areas of life science, for example drug delivery (56), and one such poljoner matrix commonly used is poly(L-lactic acid) (57). However, nanoparticles with a polystyrene-DVB matrix have been also synthetized (58,59) and used as novel solid supports for organic synthesis (60). The method commonly used to generate these monodisperse particles is Microemulsion Polymerization (qv) (58). However, nanoparticles have also been prepared by precipitation polymerization (61). A microemulsion of styrene and DVB, with an amphiphilic comonomer, in water (three component oil-in-water) (62) allows the preparation of nanobeads with a hard core of polystyrene and the amphiphihc comonomer dispersed on the surface with diameters around 50 and 300 nm that can be precipitated by the addition of methanol. Functionalization of the nanoparticles surface, can be easily achieved using the functionalized amphiphihc comonomer (Fig. 9) (60). 

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