Single Atom Copper\nCatalysts on Sulfated Zirconia\nfor the Catalytic Synthesis of Dimethoxymethane

The synthesis of dimethoxymethane via nonoxidative methanol\ndehydrogenation\nis an attractive route. However, it is still challenging to construct\ncatalytic materials of high methanol conversion, high dimethoxymethane\nselectivity, and high stability for nonoxidative methanol dehydrogenation.\nIn this work, we reported a facile strategy to prepare a series of\nsingle atom Cu catalysts by growing a sulfated zirconia thin film\non SBA-15 to anchor Cu sites. The optimal catalytic performance can\nbe obtained when the Cu loading is 10.98 wt %, which achieves high\ndimethoxymethane selectivity of 93.16% and high dimethoxymethane yield\nof 4.69% for nonoxidative methanol dehydrogenation, representing the\ntop catalytic performance among the reported catalysts. Moreover,\nregeneration experiments, in situ DRIFT, and theoretical calculations\ndemonstrated that the stability of the catalyst can be greatly improved\nby simply mixing with hydrophobic additives, which can selectively\npenetrate methanol molecules and hinder the penetration of H<sub>2</sub>O due to the charge sieving effect generated by the H atoms.