Unexpectedly high activity of bare alumina for non-oxidative isobutane dehydrogenation

Bare alumina shows surprisingly high activity in non-oxidative dehydrogenation of isobutane to isobutylene. The activity is related to surface coordinatively unsaturated Al sites (Al-cus), which are created upon removal of OH groups during alumina treatment at high temperatures. Al-cus and neighbouring lattice oxygen represent the active site for isobutane dehydrogenation.