High-Density Coordinatively Unsaturated Zn Catalyst for Efficient Alkane Dehydrogenation
Linlin Wang, Hui Wang, Renfei Cheng, Maolin Wang, Xiangbin Cai, Pengju Ren, Dequan Xiao, Ning Wang, Xiaodong Wen, Jiangyong Diao, Xiaohui Wang, Ding Ma, Hongyang Liu
Abstract
The exploration of non-noble metal catalysts for alkane dehydrogenation and their catalytic mechanisms is the priority in catalysis research. Here, we report a high-density coordinatively unsaturated Zn cation (Zn cus ) catalyst for the direct dehydrogenation (DDH) of ethylbenzene (EB) to styrene (ST). The catalyst demonstrated good catalytic performance (∼40% initial EB conversion rate and >98% ST selectivity) and excellent regeneration ability in the reaction, which is attributed to the high-density (HD) distribution and high-stability structure of Zn cus active sites on the surface of zinc silicate (HD-Zn cus @ZS). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further illustrated the reaction pathway and intermediates, supporting that the Zn cus sites can efficiently activate the C–H bond of ethyl on ethylbenzene. Developing the high-density Zn cus catalyst and exploring the catalytic mechanism laid a good foundation for designing practical non-noble metal catalysts.