Facilitating Pt−WOx Species Interaction for Efficient Glycerol Hydrogenolysis to 1,3‐Propanediol

Abstract

AbstractDesigning efficient catalysts for glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,3‐propanediol (1,3‐PDO), which involves the selective cleavage of the secondary C−O bond, is a challenging task. Current Pt−WOx‐based catalysts often provide low atom efficiency of W and Pt toward 1,3‐PDO production due to undesired catalyst structures. Herein, we fabricate the highly‐dispersed substantially uniform WOx species on inert α‐Al2O3 support by simple high‐temperature heat‐treatment, and the amount of Pt−WOx interface active sites could be adjusted by Pt loading, showing an excellent catalytic performance in glycerol hydrogenolysis at high concentration of glycerol, especially the unprecedented W efficiency (76 g1,3‐PDOgW−1 h−1) toward 1,3‐PDO. The high catalytic efficiency is attributed to the strong interaction between the isolated WO4 species and platinum, which could in‐situ generate the Brønsted acid sites during the reaction as evidenced by IR analysis with NH3 adsorption.