Effect of Calcination Temperature on Catalytic Activity and Textual Property of Cu/HMOR Catalysts in Dimethyl Ether Carbonylation Reaction

The effect of calcination temperature on the catalytic activity for the dimethyl ether (DME) carbonylation into methyl acetate (MA) was investigated over mordenite supported copper (Cu/HMOR) prepared by ion-exchange process. The results showed that the catalytic activ-ity was obviously affected by the calcination temperature. The maximal DME conversion of 97.2% and the MA selectivity of 97.9% were obtained over the Cu/HMOR calcined at 430 oC under conditions of 210 oC, 1.5 MPa, and GSHV of 4883 h^-1. The obtained Cu/HMOR catalysts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, N₂ absorption, NH₃ temperature program desorption, CO temperature program desorption, and Raman techniques. Proper calcination temperature was effective to promote copper ions migration and diffusion, and led the support HMOR to possess more acid activity sites, which exhibited the complete decomposing of copper nitrate, large surface area and optimum micropore structure, more amount of CO adsorption site and proper amount of weak acid centers.