Mixed-valence Co0/IIOx clusters on silicalite-1 facilitate propane dehydrogenation to propene

Abstract Understanding the nature of active sites in heterogeneous catalysts and how to create them purposefully opens up the possibility of tailored catalyst design. Here we report mixed-valence subnanometre CoO x clusters, consisting of a few metallic Co 0 atoms on top of Co 2+ , bound to a silicalite-1 support through lattice oxygen atoms as active species for non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation (PDH) to propene. Compared with commercial-like PtSn/Al 2 O 3 and K-CrO x /Al 2 O 3 catalysts also tested in the present study, as well as other state-of-the-art Pt- or Co-containing PDH catalysts, this system showed high on-stream stability, propene productivity and selectivity at close-to-equilibrium propane conversion. Moreover, it showed durability in a series of PDH/regeneration cycles between 500 and 550 °C. The performance of this catalyst system is industrially attractive in terms of propene production costs, as suggested by our initial techno-economic assessment.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Catalysis
Published
2026-02-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-026-01488-w
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Catalysis and Oxidation Reactions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
12.85

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article

Mixed-valence Co0/IIOx clusters on silicalite-1 facilitate propane dehydrogenation to propene

Tong Yang, Anna Zanina, Xiangnong Ding, Evgenii Kondratenko et al.
1 citations
Nature Catalysis
Catalysis and Oxidation Reactions
12.85
article

Mixed-valence Co0/IIOx clusters on silicalite-1 facilitate propane dehydrogenation to propene

Tong Yang, Anna Zanina, Xiangnong Ding, Evgenii Kondratenko, Elizaveta A. Fedorova, Haijun Jiao, Dmitry E. Doronkin, Q Zhang, Tatiana Otroshchenko, Xinxin Tian, Ding Zhao, Shutao Xu, Yuming Li, Huihui Chen, G. C. Jiang, Chunming Xu, Zhen Zhao, Stephan Bartling, Chun Deng, Vita A. Kondratenko
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract Understanding the nature of active sites in heterogeneous catalysts and how to create them purposefully opens up the possibility of tailored catalyst design. Here we report mixed-valence subnanometre CoO x clusters, consisting of a few metallic Co 0 atoms on top of Co 2+ , bound to a silicalite-1 support through lattice oxygen atoms as active species for non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation (PDH) to propene. Compared with commercial-like PtSn/Al 2 O 3 and K-CrO x /Al 2 O 3 catalysts also tested in the present study, as well as other state-of-the-art Pt- or Co-containing PDH catalysts, this system showed high on-stream stability, propene productivity and selectivity at close-to-equilibrium propane conversion. Moreover, it showed durability in a series of PDH/regeneration cycles between 500 and 550 °C. The performance of this catalyst system is industrially attractive in terms of propene production costs, as suggested by our initial techno-economic assessment.

Nature CatalysisVol. 9(3)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE), Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (CN), Shanxi University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), China University of Petroleum, Beijing (CN), Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (DE)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanxi Scholarship Council of China, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Decent work and economic growth
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Catalysis and Oxidation Reactions
12.85
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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