Stabilizing Oxygen Vacancies in ZrO2 by Ga2O3 Boosts the Direct Dehydrogenation of Light Alkanes

The conversion of light alkanes to olefins (e.g., ethylene, propylene, or butylene) is crucial to the chemical industry. ZrO2 with oxygen vacancies has recently been regarded as a promising catalyst for the direct dehydrogenation of light alkanes. However, the intrinsic mechanism of the effect of oxygen vacancies on catalytic performance has not been completely understood yet, and ZrO2 without promoters generally displays poor activity toward the direct dehydrogenation of light alkanes. In this work, we demonstrate that the oxygen vacancies in ZrO2 can be poisoned by H atoms during the dehydrogenation of light alkanes, and we report a strategy for stabilizing the oxygen vacancies in ZrO2 by Ga2O3. Experimental results and theoretical calculations indicate that ZrO2 with oxygen vacancies is responsible for dehydrogenation, while Ga2O3 prevents the poisoning of oxygen vacancies by dissociated hydrogen atoms which, in the absence of the Ga2O3 component, blocks further dehydrogenation. Consequently, the optimal Zr0.26Ga1 catalyst exhibits superior propane dehydrogenation performance to the industrial Pt–Sn catalyst, the state-of-the-art catalyst for the direct dehydrogenation of light alkanes. We anticipate this work may shed light on both the fundamental research of catalysis and the chemical industry.