서강대학교

초록/요약

Recently, as abundant nontraditional natural gas such as shale gas is developed, methane is gaining attention as an important carbon resource. Methane can be utilized by being converted into syngas with various kinds of reforming processes, and higher alcohol such as ethanol, propanol and butanol could be formed from the syngas. In this research, promoted-Rh nanocrystals incorporated in carbon sphere were used for synthesis of higher alcohol. Rh based nanocrystals encapsulated in carbon sphere catalysts were prepared using one-pot hydrothermal synthesis of mixed solution of saccharides and metal precursors. These types of catalysts showed excellent C3 and C4 alcohol selectivities as well as C2+ oxygenates. Ordered mesoporous carbon supported catalysts also exhibited high catalytic performance in the production of C3 and C4 alcohol. FT-IR analysis was conducted for confirming the CO adsorption modes on Rh active sites and it revealed that there are large amounts of active intermediates adsorbed on the surface of carbon sphere catalysts. Through scanning electron microscopy, the size and morphology of carbon sphere supported Rh based catalysts were confirmed, and metal content of each species was investigated by elemental analysis. Transmission electron microscopy was used to identify the size and size distribution of nanocrystals in catalysts before and after reaction.