Design of a core–shell catalyst: an effective strategy for suppressing side reactions in syngas for direct selective conversion to light olefins

An elegant catalyst is designed via the encapsulation of metallic oxide Zn–Cr inside of zeolite SAPO34 as a core–shell structure (Zn–Cr@SAPO) to realize the coupling of methanol-synthesis and methanol-to-olefin reactions. It can not only break through the limitation of the Anderson–Schulz–Flory distribution but can also overcome the disadvantages of physical mixture catalysts, such as excessive CO(2) formation. The confinement effect, hierarchical structure and extremely short distance between the two active components result in the Zn–Cr@SAPO capsule catalyst having better mass transfer and diffusion with a boosted synergistic effect. Due to the difference between the adsorption energies of the Zn–Cr metallic oxide/SAPO zeolite physical mixture and capsule catalysts, the produced water and light olefins are easily removed from the Zn–Cr@SAPO capsule catalyst after formation, suppressing the side reactions. The light olefin space time yield (STY) of the capsule catalyst is more than twice that of the typical physical mixture catalyst. The designed capsule catalyst has superior potential for scale-up in industrial applications while simultaneously extending the capabilities of hybrid catalysts for other tandem catalysis reactions through this strategy.