1. Introduction
The copper chromite CuCr
2
O
4
is one of the most efficient materials, has wide commercial
application as catalysts being used in the unit processes
of organic
synthesis such
as hydrogenation
[1], dehydrogenation
[2], hydrogenolysis [3], oxidation [4], alkylation [5],
cyclization [6], etc. It can be used in the pollution abatement as the catalyst to remove aqueous
organic wastes [7], volatile organic compound VOC [8] and vehicular primary emissions [9]
such as CO, unburned hydrocarbon, NO
x
and soot. In addition it has been used in various
composite solid propellants as one of the efficient combustion supporting catalysts [10] in the
domain of space vehicles rockets and weapon industries high explosives, ballistic missiles.
Furthermore, copper chromite has been proved as promising catalyst for the production of H
2
a clean
energy carrier,
by photo catalytic
phenomena [11 13], conversion of alcohols [14], water gas shift reaction [15], through sulphur
based thermo chemical water splitting cycles [16], etc. The next application of CuCr
2
O
4
is catalyst for alternative fuels preparations, synthesizing
methanol [17], an important hydrogen carrier; high alcohol synthesis HAS by hydrogenation of
CO or CO
2
, and fast pyrolysis of biomass [18] to bio oil products. The catalyst is also helpful in the
production of drugs and agro chemicals [19]. In fine chemicals industry for perfumery and
synthesis of fragrances [20] CuCr
2
O
4
is used as catalysts. The CuCr
2
O
4
catalyst is useful in desulphurization sorbents for hot coal gas in
integrated gasification combined cycle IGCC power plants [21,22]. Several other uses of
CuCr
2
O
4
are electrodes and sensors [23], semiconductors [24], heat resistant pigment [25],
etc. Many research projects sanctioned [12, 26 29],
several Ph.D. theses approved [30 34], a number of patents granted [35 39] and numerous studies
[14,15,17,19,40 42] have been conducted on innovative preparation methods and utilizations
of the copper chromite catalysts. However, preparation methods and utilizations of such
catalysts have hardly been reviewed so far. Owing to the recurrently expanding interest the world
over on the application of copper chromite catalysts, this brief article is an attempt to
summarise the applications of the copper chromite catalytic systems and to review their
various useful preparation methods. This review paper will be beneficial to the research
community as well as industries and national programs related to defence and space research in
understanding the progress of preparation methods and applications of copper chromite
catalysts.
2. Application of copper chromite catalysts 2.1 Commercial application
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