{"schema":"pubphys.bundle/1","record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"cae744df2d4c6ddd94ce1f1248fb4d95957f9ab96e25ceaa13a96fc1a5b1117d","created":"2026-10-03T07:17:58Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"08420529bb24add892ffe684f6b3362052ac73dcea23aac59426a68d6c2a92a7","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"identification","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"chem.catalytic-mechanisms.methanol-active-site","kind":"well-posed","literature_status":"contested","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"Most of the world's methanol is made from carbon oxides and hydrogen over copper particles mixed with zinc oxide. Whether the reaction runs on copper steps decorated with zinc, on a copper-zinc surface alloy, or at the boundary with zinc oxide is still argued.","posed_since":"","precise":"For Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 under industrial conditions (about 500 K, $5e7\\ \\text{to}\\ 1e8\\ \\mathrm{dyn}/\\mathrm{cm}^{2}$ of CO/CO2/H2), identify the site responsible for most methanol turnover: Zn-decorated Cu steps (Behrens et al., Science 2012, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219831), a Cu-Zn surface alloy whose Zn coverage sets the rate (Kuld et al., Science 2016, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf0718), or the Cu-$\\mathrm{ZnO}_{x}$ interface, and whether the site differs for CO2 and CO hydrogenation. An answer is operando identification of site structure correlated with site-normalized rates and reproduced by first-principles kinetics.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"Operando spectroscopy and microscopy counting candidate sites under reaction conditions, correlated with turnover and with computed kinetics.","status_note":"Competing assignments published in 2012, 2016 and 2020 (Laudenschleger, Ruland, Muhler, Nature Communications, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17631-5) have not been reconciled.","title":"Active site of copper-zinc methanol synthesis 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