WO3–ZrO2–TiO2 Composite Oxide Supported Pt as an Efficient Catalyst for Continuous Hydrogenolysis of Glycerol

Abstract Two series of WO 3 –ZrO 2 and WO 3 –ZrO 2 –TiO 2 composite oxides were prepared via an Evaporation Induced Self Assembly (EISA) method and applied for the hydrogenolysis of glycerol after loading with Pt. Several techniques like XRD, BET, Raman spectroscopy, NH 3 -TPD, Py-IR, TEM and XPS were adopted to characterize the physicochemical properties of the as-synthesized catalysts. The structure and catalytic activities of these catalysts were significantly affected by the calcination temperature of the composite oxides. The introduction of TiO 2 into Pt/WO 3 –ZrO 2 could inhibit the drastic decrease in catalytic performance due to the formation of inactive crystalline WO 3 under high calcination temperature of 800 ℃. A maximum activity was obtained on the Pt/WO 3 –ZrO 2 –TiO 2 catalyst when the calcination temperature was 600 ℃, which gave 73.8% glycerol conversion and 25.4% 1,3-propanediol yield. While the Pt/WO 3 –ZrO 2 catalyst only exhibited 53.4% glycerol conversion and 20.2% 1,3-propanediol yield. The enhanced activity of Pt/WO 3 –ZrO 2 –TiO 2 was ascribed to the improved acidity originating from (i) higher acidic properties of WO x species when linked to Ti with larger electronegativity other than Zr and (ii) new acid centers caused by heteroatoms linkage as the combination of ZrO 2 and TiO 2 . The effects of Pt loading amount and reaction temperatures were also investigated. Graphic Abstract