On the Reduction of Copper Oxide

The reduction of CuO with hydrogen has been studied with a temperature programmed reduction technique. According to a proposed reduction mechanism, the reduction was initiated with a interaction between hydrogen and active sites of copper oxide, the rate of the reduction was limited by the diffusion of water from the crystalline. The activation energy of this diffusion is found to be 13Kcal/mol. Reoxidation of copper powder may cause redispersion of the crystalline. The chemical interaction between copper oxide and Cabosil is found very weak.