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[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]