The role of Cu0 in propane dehydration over extremely-low loaded PtCu@S-1 catalyst

Pt-based bimetallic catalysts have gained more and more attention in propane dehydrogenation (PDH), but still suffer from the high cost and poor stability. In this work, a PtCu@S-1 catalyst with an extremely low loading of Pt (0.047 wt%) is prepared by in-situ hydrothermal synthesis and employed in PDH. An excellent productivity (propylene yield: 471.8 molC 3 H 8 ⋅ g Pt -1 ⋅ h −1 ) is achieved at 600 °C with a weight hour space velocity of 25.80 h −1 . After 50 h of reaction at 600 ℃, 0.047Pt0.19Cu@S-1 catalyst still remains sinter-free, with a deactivation rate of only 0.006 h −1 . Various characterizations show that Cu 0 co-existed with Pt 0 in PtCu@S-1 catalyst plays an important role, greatly improved catalyst reactivity and stability. At high weight hour space velocity (44.5 h −1 ), the propylene productivity can reach 1056.4 molC 3 H 8 ⋅ g Pt -1 ⋅ h −1 . This work provides a new way for the design of extremely low Pt-loaded PDH catalysts with excellent performance at high temperatures.