Preparation of ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts by using atomic layer deposition for plasma-assisted non-oxidative methane coupling

We prepared a ZnO/mesoporous Al2O3-shell/core structure by using atomic layer deposition (ALD) of ZnO on commercially-available mesoporous Al2O3. We used various analysis techniques such as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, and surface area and pore size analyses based on nitrogen isotherm data. A 200 nm-thick slab of mesoporous Al2O3 particles was decorated by ZnO upon ALD deposition, whereas the inner part of the Al2O3 particle was free of ZnO. We evaluated the catalytic activity of the bare and the ZnO-covered Al2O3 for plasma-assisted nonoxidative coupling of methane. The catalytic behavior was shown to be sensitive to the amount of ZnO deposited. Particularly, 40-cycled ZnO/Al2O3 showed an enhanced selectivity to the olefin product with almost the same CH4 conversion as that of bare Al2O3. Preparation of the shell/core structure by using ALD can be an interesting strategy for finding highly-efficient catalysts in a plasma-assisted catalytic reaction.