| abstract |
The present invention provides a copper-based catalyst, a method of producing the copper-based catalyst, and the use of the copper-based catalyst as a dehydrogenation catalyst in the production of hydroxyketone compounds such as acetoin. The copper-based catalyst comprises at least one selected from copper, and Group IIA metals, Group VIII non-precious metals, Group VIB metals, Group VIIB metals, Group IIB metals and lanthanum series metals in the periodic table of the elements. It further includes at least one ketone additive selected from the ketone compounds represented by the formula (II) and the ketone compounds represented by the formula (II ′), which contains an auxiliary metal of a kind and an alkali metal. The copper-based catalyst exhibits high acetoin selectivity when used as a dehydrogenation catalyst to produce acetoin. R1-C (= O) -CH (OH) -R2 (II) R1-C (= O) -CH (= O) -R2 (II ') In formulas (II) and (II '), the definition of each group is as described in the specification. 【Selection chart】 None |