Industrial heterogeneous catalysts most commonly consist of active metal nanoparticles dispersed on an oxide support material. In many cases the support is not active for the given catalytic transformation however, for some oxides, interactions between the metal and the oxide can give rise to dramatic changes in activity and selectivity. While there are numerous examples of these support effects the mechanism by which a supporting oxide influences the catalytic performance of a metal is not well understood. Through the use of catalytic reaction studies an in-situ Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy (SFG) we have determined reaction intermediates of crotonaldehyde hydrogenation on Pt/SiO2 and Pt/TiO2 supported catalysts and determined the mechanism by which TiO2 influences the reaction. We find that Pt on TiO2 produces C=O bond hydrogenation products as major products where Pt on SiO2 produces no detectable amount of these products. SFG results show an oxygen bound surface species on the Pt/TiO2, the active intermediate to the formation of alcohol products.

Understanding the role of the metal-support interface in heterogeneous catalysis using in-situ sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy

248th National Meeting (2014)

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