Deciphering the promoting mechanism of SnO2 to Cu2O in the Rochow-Muller reaction

Sn-based compounds are typical promoters for Cu-based catalysts used in the Rochow-Muller reaction, which manufactures most organosilicon monomers in the industry. However, the role of these promoters and the detailed structural evolution of Cu-based catalysts during the reaction have not been clearly clar-ified in the literature. Herein, a series of SnO2-modified commercial Cu2O catalysts (xSnO2/Cu2O, x = 0.01, 0.03, and 0.1) with different SnO2 contents (0.01, 0.03, and 0.1 wt%) were prepared and tested for the Rochow-Muller reaction. Among these catalysts, 0.03SnO2/Cu2O exhibits the highest dimethyldichlorosi-lane selectivity of 87.8 % and Si conversion of 35.8 % at 325 & DEG;C. The detailed characterization and analysis reveal that introducing SnO2 promotes the transformation of Cu2O to CuCl and Cu and further to the active Cu3Si phase, thus leading to the high catalytic performance of the SnO2-modified Cu2O catalysts. This work provides new insights into the SnO2 promotion to the Cu-based catalysts and the catalytic mechanism in the Rochow-Muller reaction. & COPY; 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.