Propane wet reforming over PtSn nanoparticles on γ-Al2O3 for acetone synthesis
Acetone serves as an important solvent and building block for the chemical industry, but the current industrial synthesis of acetone is generally accompanied by the energy-intensive and costly cumene process used for phenol production. Here we propose a sustainable route for acetone synthesis via propane wet reforming at a moderate temperature of 350 <sup>o</sup>C with the use of platinum-tin nanoparticles supported on γ-aluminium oxide (PtSn/γ-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>) as catalyst. We achieve an acetone productivity of 858.4 μmol/g with a selectivity of 57.8% among all carbon-based products and 99.3% among all liquid products. Detailed spectroscopic and controlled experiments reveal that the acetone is formed through a tandem catalytic process involving propene and isopropanol as intermediates. We also demonstrate facile ketone synthesis via wet reforming with the use of different alkanes (e.g., n-butane, n-pentane, n-hexane, n-heptane, and n-octane) as substrates, proving the wide applicability of this strategy.
Authors
- Tao Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3581-2925)
- Xinlong Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7034-4840)
- Sunpei Hu
- Zhengtian Pu
- Jie Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8812-0298)
- Haibin Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9088-991X)
- Xinyan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7805-2048)
- Hongliang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0348-7910)
- Weizhe Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1586-6224)
- Laihao Luo
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Anhui University (CN)
- Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN)
- National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (CN)
- University of Toyama (JP)
- Anhui University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-09-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52702-x
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Catalytic Processes in Materials Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.94
Funders
- Tencent
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- University of Science and Technology of China
- National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory
- Yulin University
- Hefei Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy