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.