Abstract The Cu/SiO2 catalysts were prepared by adsorbed-layer reactor technique to obtain high activity Cu-based catalysts of ethanol carbonylation, and were characterized by Transmission electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. The influences of loading, modified components and support types on ethanol carbonylation activity were investigated. It was found that Cu particles with 2-3 nm diameter were uniformly dispersed on the surface of SiO2 with NaBH4 as reducing agent and Cu active sites on the surface of SiO2 played a catalytic role in carbonylation reaction. The high activity of Cu/SiO2 was attributed to the high dispersion of Cu active sites. As the Cu loading increased, the activity increased linearly then decreased slowly. The decrease of dispersion at the high loading resulted in the decrease of activity. The added modified component caused the decrease of activity due to Cu active sites covered. The impact of support type on activity indicated that the higher specific surface area of nonporous SiO2 was in favor of the dispersion of Cu active sites thus promoted carbonylation activity.
