Structure sensitivity of Cu and CuZn catalysts relevant to industrial methanol synthesis

For decades it has been debated whether the conversion of synthesis gas to methanol over copper catalysts is sensitive or insensitive to the structure of the copper surface. Here we have systematically investigated the effect of the copper particle size in the range where changes in surface structure occur, that is, below 10 nm, for catalysts with and without zinc promotor at industrially relevant conditions for methanol synthesis. Regardless of the presence or absence of a zinc promotor in the form of zinc oxide or zinc silicate, the surface-specific activity decreases significantly for copper particles smaller than 8 nm, thus revealing structure sensitivity. In view of recent theoretical studies we propose that the methanol synthesis reaction takes place at copper surface sites with a unique configuration of atoms such as step-edge sites, which smaller particles cannot accommodate.