With the huge consumption of limited reserves fossil fuels and increasing environmental issues, catalytic conversion of biomass-derived platform molecules has attracted considerable attention, in which glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,2-propylene (1,2-PDO) is an essential process in the production of high value-added chemicals. Bimetallic catalysts, with particular advantages of geometric and electronic structure, provide unique active centers that exert excellent catalytic performance in a broad scope of reactions. Pt catalysts exhibit superior activity but are prone to break C–C bond, resulting in a loss of selectivity. Inspired by the above facts, if a bimetallic catalyst is designed by distributing Pt atoms onto the second metal nanoparticles to marry the advantages of them, both activity and selectivity can be guaranteed. A series bimetallic catalyst (PtCu single atom alloy and PtIn alloy) has been prepared, verified by many characterizations including AC–HAADF–STEM, in situ CO–DRIFTS and in situ EXAFS. PtCu–SAA exhibits extraordinary glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,2-PDO (yield&gt;99%, 200 °C, 2 MPa). Notably, the TOF is 2600 h−1, which is 8–120 fold larger than that of metal catalysts ever reported. Both in situ glycerol-EXAFS and in situ glycerol-DRIFTS and DFT calculations substantiate the Pt–Cu interface sites serve as intrinsic active centers: the single Pt atom facilitates the activation adsorption of central C–H bond in glycerol molecule, whilst the terminal C–O bond undergoes dissociation adsorption on adjacent Cu atoms. This interfacial synergistic catalysis changes the reaction pathway (with a lower activation energy) in comparison with traditional monometallic catalysts, accounting for the largely boosted activity and selectivity.

Unlocking synergy in bimetallic catalysts towards high-efficient glycerol hydrogenolysis

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