Study on the Structure and Performance of Copper-chromium Oxide Catalysts

The dependence of hydrogenation catayic activity on the structure of copper-chromium oxide catalysts was investigated by using EPR, XRD, XPS, SEM, TPR, DSC techniques. Our study showed that the active substance of catalysts in hydrogenation of soybean oil at atmosphere pressure looked like a combination of C^O and CuCr₂O₄, in which copper and chromium appeared as Cu²⁺ and Cr³⁺ respectively. The copper in catalysts was reduced from Cu²⁺to the Cu0while Cr³⁺ was not changed after hydrogenation reaction. The investigaion also showed that a part of Cr³⁺ in catalyst would be oxidized to be Cr⁶⁺ and the activity of catalysts hence decreased if there existed a great amount of oxygen in calcination atmosphere.