The Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalysts (CuZnAl) can be utilized to directly synthesize isobutanol from syngas at low temperatures, and complexants are new and efficient modifiers for the catalysts used to synthesize higher alcohols. However, little is known about effects of the complexants such as ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) and triethanolamine (TEA) on structure and catalytic activity of CuZnAl. In this work, the precursors of CuZnAl, hydrotalcite-like compounds (HTLCs), were treated with EDTA and TEA to obtain the CuZnAl modified by EDTA (CuZnAl-EDTA) and TEA (CuZnAl-TEA). The catalytic performances of CuZnAl, CuZnAl-EDTA and CuZnAl-TEA were evaluated. Addition of EDTA or TEA increased CO conversion and selectivity for isobutanol and ethanol compared with pure CuZnAl. All the samples were characterized by BET, XRD, SEM, CO–TPD, CO₂–TPD, H₂–TPR and FTIR spectroscopy to further disclose the reason for better catalytic performance of CuZnAl-EDTA and CuZnAl-TEA. We found that the EDTA and TEA promote reduction of CuO, increase in concentration of basic sites and formation of floccule-like structure, which efficiently improves catalytic activity of CuZnAl-EDTA and CuZnAl-TEA for synthesis of isobutanol and ethanol. However, EDTA restrains CO desorption from the surface of the catalysts, and thus the strongly adsorbed CO molecules may lead to lower catalytic activity of CuZnAl-EDTA compared with CuZnAl-TEA.

Cu / ZnO / Al ₂ O ₃催化剂（CuZnAl）可用于在低温下从合成气直接合成异丁醇，络合剂是用于合成高级醇的催化剂的新型高效改性剂。然而，关于诸如乙二胺四乙酸（EDTA）和三乙醇胺（TEA）的络合剂对CuZnAl的结构和催化活性的影响知之甚少。在这项工作中，用EDTA和TEA处理CuZnAl的前体，类水滑石化合物（HTLCs），以获得经EDTA（CuZnAl-EDTA）和TEA（CuZnAl-TEA）改性的CuZnAl。评价了CuZnAl，CuZnAl-EDTA和CuZnAl-TEA的催化性能。与纯CuZnAl相比，添加EDTA或TEA可以提高CO转化率以及对异丁醇和乙醇的选择性。所有样品均经过BET，XRD，SEM，CO–TPD，CO ₂表征-TPD，H ₂ -TPR和FTIR光谱进一步揭示了CuZnAl-EDTA和CuZnAl-TEA催化性能更好的原因。我们发现EDTA和TEA促进了CuO的还原，碱性位点浓度的增加和絮状结构的形成，从而有效地提高了CuZnAl-EDTA和CuZnAl-TEA对异丁醇和乙醇合成的催化活性。但是，EDTA抑制了CO从催化剂表面的解吸，因此与CuZnAl-TEA相比，强吸附的CO分子可能导致CuZnAl-EDTA的催化活性降低。