Activation of amorphous Cu-M (M=Ti, Zr or Hf) alloy powders made by mechanical alloying

Amorphous Cu-M alloy powders (Cu40Ti60, Cu50Zr50 and Cu65Hf35) produced by mechanical alloying are activated by being applied as catalyst in the transformation of various alcohols at elevated temperature (523-573 K). During the dehydrogenation of 2-propanol to acetone and the transformations of allyl alcohol to form propanal and 1-propanol active, stable and selective catalysts are generated from Cu-Zr and Cu-Hf. DSC, XRD and XPS data indicate bulk crystallization and copper segregation to the surface. Due to surface titanium enrichment Cu-Ti proved to be inferior to the other two alloys. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.