In Situ Growth of Tungsten Oxide on Alumina to Boost the Catalytic Performance of Platinum for Glycerol Hydrogenolysis

The hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol has an important industrial value but remains a great challenge. Herein, a tungsten oxide hydrate (WO3·H2O) containing Brønsted acid sites and surface oxygen vacancies was in situ grown on the surface of alumina. The coordination chemistry of WO3 on the carrier contributes to the extremely dispersed platinum and the excellent acidic property, and much more Pt–O–W interfaces are created. The synthetic Pt/H–WO3/γ-Al2O3 catalyst exhibited much higher catalytic performance for glycerol hydrogenolysis than Pt/C–WO3/γ-Al2O3, in which C–WO3/γ-Al2O3 was routinely prepared by calcining the tungsten precursor (AMT) pre-impregnated on γ-Al2O3. The success for this strategy lies in the pre-control toward the state of WO3 on the support, and several characterization techniques were performed to reveal the structure–property relationship.