(6ad) Insight into Pt-Bi Bimetallic Catalysts: An Experimental and DFT Study

Teaching Interests: Reaction Engineering

Owing to environmental concerns and scarcity of known reserves, biomass has been shown to be an important renewable source, which can be converted into both sustainable fuels and chemicals. Heterogeneous catalysis plays an important role in such processes, while the following two issues still remain challenging and limit their industrial applications: tuning the catalyst selectivity toward target products and improving its stability against coking/carbon deposit. Both issues can be addressed by use of bimetallic catalysts, containing a primary metal (e.g. Pt, Pd, Ru, Rh, etc.) and a promoter (e.g. Mo, Sn, Bi, etc.). In the present work, we report an example of Pt-Bi bimetallic catalyst that selectively converts biodiesel waste product glycerol to 1,3-dihydroyacetone (DHA) and improves catalyst stability for reactions involving CH₄ (guaiacol deoxygenation using CH₄ in place of H₂. Based on experimental observations and theoretical analysis, Bi locates in an adatom-like configuration Pt and a cooperative effect between Pt as the primary metal and Bi as a promoter was identified. Insight into Pt-Bi bimetallic catalysts also suggests other catalytic applications, such as short-chain alcohol oxidation and oxidative coupling of methane.