Activating the Interfacial Oxygen Species in the Pt/Wo3 Catalyst for Propane Complete Oxidation

Abstract

Active oxygen species in heterogeneous catalysts is very vital for driving catalytic reaction but still difficult to rationally modulate. Herein, the interfacial oxygen species in Pt/WO3 catalyst is conveniently activated by a heating treatment under nitrogen flow. The obtain Pt/WO3-N2-T (T=200,400,600, represents the calcination temperature) shows much superior catalytic activity than the bare Pt/WO3 catalyst, particularly for the Pt/WO3-N2-400 catalyst with T95 of only 250 oC (T95 of Pt/WO3 =350 oC). The changes of catalyst structure during heating treatment in nitrogen flow contributes to the improved activity, including re-dispersed WO3 support and Pt nanoparticles. More importantly, the surface oxygen species in the Pt/WO3-N2-400 catalyst is more active than that of the bare Pt/WO3 catalyst, which is generated by removing hydroxyl groups and its residual oxygen species activated by nearby Pt species. These novel findings provide the strategy to rationally activate surface oxygen in the heterogeneous catalysts for catalytic oxidation reaction.

Keywords: Propane oxidation, Catalytic oxidation, Pt/WO3 catalyst, Active oxidation species, Surface reaction mechanism.