The microstructure of copper zinc oxide catalysts: bridging the materials gap.

Received: 15 December 2004; Revised: 26 January 2005 Abstract Copper zinc oxide catalysts prepared similar to industrially used catalysts were studied by high-resolution electron microscopy. The microstructure of the Cu/ZnO catalysts deviates considerably from that of bulk copper metal and idealized copper model systems. In order to reveal reliable structure-activity relationships for copper catalysts in methanol chemistry, future model systems need to take the “real” structure of active copper catalysts into account.