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Title: Sulfur Tolerant Subnanometer Fe/Alumina Catalysts for Propane Dehydrogenation
A series of Al2O3-supported Fe-containing catalysts were synthesized by incipient wetness impregnation. The iron surface density was varied from 1 to 13 Fe atoms/nm2 spanning sub- and above-monolayer coverage. The resulting supported Fe-catalysts were characterized with N2 physisorption, ex situ XRD, PDF, XAS, AC-STEM and chemically probed by H2-TPR. The results suggest that over this entire range of loadings, Fe was present as dispersed species, with only a very small fraction of Fe2O3 aggregates, at the highest Fe loading. The in situ sulfidation of Fe/Al2O3 resulted in the formation of a highly active and selective PDH catalyst. The highest activity with 52% propane conversion and ~99% propylene selectivity at 560 °C was obtained for the 6.4 Fe/Al2O3 catalyst suggesting that this is the highest amount of Fe that could be fully dispersed on the support in sulfided form. XRD and AC-STEM indicated the absence of any crystalline iron sulfide aggregates after sulfidation and reaction. H2-TPR results indicated that the amount of the reducible Fe sites in the sulfided catalyst remained constant above monolayer coverage, and increasing loading did not increase the number of reducible Fe sites. Consistent with these results, the reactivity per gram of catalyst showed no increase with Fe loading above monolayer coverage, suggesting that additional Fe remains conformal to the alumina surface.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1828731
NSF-PAR ID:
10297575
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
ACS Applied Nano Materials
ISSN:
2574-0970
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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