Cu/ZnO catalyst has been wildly studied for methanol synthesis, methanol steam reforming, and hydrogen production reactions. The typical methods to grow copper particles on metal oxide substrate are wet co-precipitation chemistry or vacuum deposition. In this work, copper nanoparticles were grown on zinc oxide (ZnO) powder at room temperature using common chemical vapor deposition precursors, such as hexafluoroacetylacetonate copper(I) vinyltrimethylsilane, (Cu(hfac)(VTMS)) under high vacuum conditions. The growth was found to be promoted by exposing ZnO powder to the gas-phase water, and the intensity of the infrared signatures of hydroxyl groups decreased following exposure to copper precursor. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies determined that Cu(I) species are the dominant products present on the surface. FT-IR and scanning electron microscopy results indicate that Cu nanoparticles can be grown on ZnO(000), ZnO (100) and defect sites. This Cu/ZnO surface covered with strongly bound hfac ligands was then annealed to different temperature to remove surface contamination. The thermal chemistry involved in this process and the chemical stability of the surface-bound ligands will be discussed.

Deposition chemistry for metalorganic copper precursors on ZnO powder

248th National Meeting (2014)

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