由合成气直接制备乙二醇已在一些可溶性第Ⅶ族金属催化剂上通过实验证明可行。铑、钌和钴金属核心是特别有利的。然而,这些合成反应仍需十分剧烈的操作条件,而CO加氢的反应率仍然很低。一种至今还没有广泛研究过的可能性,是采用双金属的、多金属的或桥联金属的羰基簇作为催化剂母 The direct preparation of ethylene glycol from syngas has proved viable on some soluble Group VII metal catalysts. Rhodium, ruthenium and cobalt metal cores are particularly advantageous. However, these synthetic reactions still require very severe operating conditions, while the reaction rate for CO hydrogenation is still low. One possibility that has not been extensively studied so far is the use of bimetallic, polymetallic or bridged metal carbonyl clusters as catalyst matrix