In situ IR study of dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation to ethylene glycol over Cu/SiO2 catalyst

The mechanism of dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation to ethylene glycol over Cu/SiO2 catalyst was investigated by in situ Fourier transform infrared （FTIR） spectroscopy. It was found that dimethyl oxalate and methyl glycolate proceeded via dissociative adsorption on Cu/SiO2 catalyst, and four main intermediates, CH3OC（O）（O）C-M （1655 cm-1）, M-C（O）（O）C-M （1618 cm-1）, HOCH2（O）C--M （1682 cm-1） and CH3O-M （2924-2926 cm-1）, were identified during the reaction. It was concluded that dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation to ethylene glycol mainly proceeded along the route： dimethyl oxalate ／rightarrow CH3OC（O）（O）C-M → methyl glycolate →HOCH2（O）C-M → ethylene glycol. Finally a schematic reaction network was proposed.