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The enhancement of catalytic activity is always limited by the dilemma in activation and desorption due to Sabatier principle. Locating the Sabatier optimum by manipulating catalyst electronic structure has been a long‐standing challenge in heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, we presented a generic strategy to continuously tailor the Pt 5d state occupancy via tuning the PtOMn electronic linkage over Al2O3‐confined MnOx islands, aiming at accommodating the CH cleavage and product desorption capabilities in dehydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (monocyclic/bicyclic hydrides). Rising Mn valence can decrease the Pt 5d state occupancy through more electron transfer from Pt 5d to O 2p due to the strong π‐donation of O 2p to Mn 3d. This will lead to the lower initial CH activation energy barrier while higher product desorption energy barrier. An intermediate Pt 5d filling of ~8.4 in PtMn2O3/Al2O3 enables the balanced level of product desorption and CH activation, thus ensuring a superior dehydrogenation activity. The electron structure‐adsorption‐performance modulation mechanism described herein provides a benchmark to locate the Sabatier optimum for the metal catalyst design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main observation and conclusion: The catalytic properties of the CeO2 catalyst for propane dehydrogenation (PDH) are examined by employing the density functional theory calculations. Surface modifications and their effects on the surface reactivity are explored by creating the oxygen vacancy and single Pt atom doping. A comparative study between the binding energies of the different PDH reaction species reveals a considerable Lewis acid‐base interaction over the pristine and defective surfaces, which dominantly strengthens the bond formation between the adsorbates and the catalyst surface, resulting in the enhancement of surface reactivity. The creation of oxygen vacancy and doping the CeO2(111) surface with single Pt atoms changes the charge distribution over the surface on account of excess 4f electrons. This electronic change increases the bond formation abilities of the inactive Ce atom and hence increases the adsorption strength. Oxygen vacancy in the defective CeO2(111) surface migrates over the surface with the addition of an appropriate adsorbate. Moreover, it is revealed that the propylene is more strongly adsorbed on the single‐Pt‐atom‐doped CeO2(111) surface than the pristine and defective surfaces, which decreases the deep dehydrogenation energy barrier and ultimately results in the lowering of the selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Non-precious intermetallic compound catalysts for propane dehydrogenation. • Scaling relations are established using formation energies over terraces and steps. • Descriptor-based microkinetic analysis is carried out to obtain volcano curves. • Fe 3 Ga 1 is a good catalyst candidate with improved catalytic performance. By using a descriptor-based microkinetic analysis combined with results from density functional theory calculations over eight transition-metal (including Ni, Cu, Rh, Pd, Ag, Ir, Pt, and Au) terrace and stepped surfaces, intermetallic compounds have been screened to search for inexpensive and environmentally friendly propane dehydrogenation (PDH) catalysts with enhanced catalytic performance. Based on the scaling relations, the formation energies of ethyl on terrace and methylidyne on stepped surfaces are identified as two descriptors to represent the energetics of other reaction intermediates and transition sates. The derived PDH activity and propylene selectivity volcano curves not only provide a rational interpretation of the previously experimentally reported catalyst candidates, but also predict several unexpected binary combinations by screening 1482 A 3 B 1 and 741 A 1 B 1 intermetallic compounds. The non-precious Fe 3 Ga 1 is then synthesized and evaluated. Its improved propylene selectivity and catalytic stability with respect to those of the Pt catalyst validates the theoretical predictions experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Atomically dispersed Pt-rTiO 2 catalyst shows good catalytic performance for PDH. • Single and dual Pt atoms can be tightly held by vacancies created on reduced TiO 2. • Dual-Pt-atom structure is the active ensemble for the C H bond activation. Tailoring atomically dispersed catalysts by various methods has been the subject of intense current research in heterogeneous catalysis. In this work, the structural stability and propane dehydrogenation performance of Pt-TiO 2 catalysts with single, dual, and triple Pt atoms doped on the reduced TiO 2 surface have been examined. Experimental results indicate the atomically dispersed Pt is thermally very stable and shows exceptionally high activity (TOF propane = 4.93 s−1) and selectivity (∼98.5 %) for the dehydrogenation reaction. The recently developed machine-learning-based SSW-NN method is then employed to explore the global potential energy surface of the atomically dispersed Pt atom-doped TiO 2 , which suggests that the single and dual Pt atoms can be tightly held by the vacancies created on the reduced transition-metal oxide, as confirmed by DFT + U calculated energetics. After that, advanced characterization techniques are used in conjunction with microkinetic analysis to establish the quantitative structure–activity relationships. It is found that the dual-Pt-atom structure with two Pt atoms embedded in adjacent Ti and O vacancies is the only active ensemble that dramatically promotes the C H bond activation and hydrogen recombination, as compared to single Pt atoms accommodated by either Ti or O vacancies. These results provide new and direct evidence in support of the idea that specific function can be imparted to specific active sites by tuning their coordination environments, which makes it possible to tailor the catalytic properties of metal oxides to a particular reaction such as propane dehydrogenation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Substitution of transition metals for Cr increases the acidity of the adjacent O. • Linear scaling relations are established to identify the PDH activity descriptor. • High propylene selectivity of the M 1 -Cr 2 O 3 catalysts is achieved. • Cu 1 -Cr 2 O 3 is predicted to be the best catalyst for PDH among the 13 doped Cr 2 O 3. The catalytic behavior of M 1 -Cr 2 O 3 (M = Mn-Cu, Ru-Ag, and Os-Au) in propane dehydrogenation (PDH) has been studied by employing microkinetic modeling combined with results from periodic DFT + U calculations. Calculated results indicate that most of the single atoms concerned can be stably present on the Cr 2 O 3 surface. The adsorption energy calculations and Bader charge analysis demonstrate that the acidity of the O sites adjacent to the M sites would be enhanced upon doping, which in turn strengthens the atomic H adsorption and the co-adsorption of various PDH species. The surface H formation energy is identified as the reactivity descriptor for PDH over the M 1 -Cr 2 O 3 catalysts, and a volcano curve of the PDH activity is obtained. By calculating the difference between the propylene dehydrogenation and desorption barriers, it is found that some M 1 -Cr 2 O 3 catalysts show improved selectivity towards propylene, as compared to Cr 2 O 3. Comparison between the formation barriers of H 2 and H 2 O reveals that single-atom doping has no apparent negative effect on the catalytic stability of the Cr 2 O 3 surface. The Cu 1 -Cr 2 O 3 catalyst is finally identified as the most promising catalyst for PDH among the 13 M 1 -Cr 2 O 3 catalyst candidates, considering the catalytic activity, selectivity, stability, and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pt/MgAl 2 O 4 shows robust dehydrogenation activity being twice that of Pt/CNF. • Edge Pt sites are discriminated to be the dominant active sites. • Partial positively charged Pt prevents the strong adsorption of products on catalyst. Platinum group metals hold pronounced potential for the dehydrogenation process of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) such as decalin, but the strong adsorption of dehydrogenation product has suppressed the moving forward of these catalysts. Herein, we described that the strong interactions between Pt and MgAl 2 O 4 trigger partial positively charged Pt, which mitigates the adsorption of naphthalene on highly active Pt sites, thus achieving an outstanding decalin dehydrogenation activity that is nearly twice that of state-of-the-art Pt/CNF catalysts. As revealed by various characterization outcomes and DFT calculations, the strong electronic interactions between Pt and spinel oxygen surface resulted in partial positively charged Pt on MgAl 2 O 4 , which inhibits the electron transfer from Pt to unsaturated carbon of naphthalene, thus weakening the bond strength between Pt and naphthalene. As a result, the combination of small-sized Pt nanoparticles and facile desorption of products endows tremendous dehydrogenation activity of Pt/MgAl 2 O 4. This study may shed new light on the rational construction of highly efficient metal catalysts for the application of LOHCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]