Highly Productive Propane Dehydrogenation Catalyst Using Silica-Supported Ga-Pt Nanoparticles Generated from Single-Sites

The development of more effective alkane dehydrogenation catalysts is a key technological challenge for the production of olefins from shale gas, an abundant source of light hydrocarbons. Surface organometallic chemistry provides an original approach to generate nanometric Ga Pt bimetallic particles supported on partially dehydroxylated silica containing gallium single-sites, which displays high activity, selectivity, and stability in propane dehydrogenation. This catalyst was prepared via sequential grafting of a platinum precursor onto silica possessing site-isolated gallium sites followed by H-2 reduction. Monitoring generation of the reduced species, (Ga delta+Pt0)/SiO2, via in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals formation of a GaxPt (0.5 < x < 0.9) alloy with a fraction of gallium remaining as isolated sites. This bimetallic material exhibits catalytic performance that far surpasses each of the individual components and other reported Ga-Pt based catalysts; this is attributed to the highly dispersed GaxPt alloyed structure on a support with low Bronsted acidity containing gallium single-sites.