Enhancing alkyne semi-hydrogenation through engineering metal-support interactions of Pd on oxides
Yuefeng Wu, Xiaotong Lu, Peng‐Fei Cui, Wenyu Jia, Jun Zhou, Yuan Wang, Zahid Hussain, Yuxin Wu, Muhammad Umer Rafique, Xiong Yin, Baoshan Li, Leyu Wang, Guolei Xiang
Abstract
Supported Pd catalysts show superior activities for olefin productions from alkynes through semi-hydrogenation reactions, but over-hydrogenation into alkanes highly decreases olefin selectivity. Using phenylacetylene semi-hydrogenation as a model reaction, here we explore the optimization approaches toward better Pd catalysts for alkyne semi-hydrogenation through investigating support effect and metal–support interactions. The results show that the states of Pd with supports can be tuned by varying oxide reducibility, loading ratios, and post-treatments. In our system, 0.06 wt.% Pd on rutile-TiO2 nanorods shows the highest activity owing to the synergistic effects of single-atoms and clusters. Support reducibility can change the filling degrees of Pd 4d orbitals through varying interfacial bonding strengths, which further affect catalytic activity and selectivity.