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Modeling the Effect of Surface Platinum–Tin Alloys on Propane Dehydrogenation on Platinum–Tin Catalysts

Journal Article · · ACS Catalysis
Uncertainty analysis, reported experimental literature data, and density functional theory were synthesized to model the effect of surface tin coverage on platinum-based catalysts for nonoxidative propane dehydrogenation to propylene. Here, this study tests four different platinum–tin skin surface models as potential catalytic sites, Pt3Sn/Pt(100), PtSn/Pt(100), Pt3Sn/Pt(111), and Pt2Sn/Pt(211), and compares them to the corresponding pure Pt surface sites using an uncertainty analysis methodology that uses BEEF-vdW with its ensembles (BMwE) to generate the uncertainty for the energies of the intermediates and transition states. One experimental data set with two experimental observations, selectivity to propylene and turnover frequency of propylene, was used as a calibration data set to evaluate the impact of the experimental data on informing the models. This study finds that the prior model for Pt3Sn/Pt(100) is the most active and Pt2Sn/Pt(211) is the most selective toward propylene. Active sites on the (100) facet have the highest probability of being responsible for C1 and C2 product formations (C–C bond cleavage). Increasing the Sn coverage on the (100) surface facet to a PtSn/Pt(100) active site leads to a significantly reduced rate and might explain the experimentally observed higher selectivity of Sn-doped catalysts relative to pure Pt catalysts. Next, this study finds that for all surfaces, except PtSn/Pt(100), the rate-controlling steps are the initial dehydrogenation steps alongside some partially rate-controlling second dehydrogenation steps. For PtSn/Pt(100), only the initial terminal dehydrogenation step to CH3CH2CH2* and second dehydrogenation steps are rate-controlling. Next, the calibrated models for all surfaces were found to be selective toward propylene production and model the reported turnover frequency successfully. Nevertheless, Pt2Sn/Pt(211) emerges as the active site with some (minor) evidence as the main active site based on Jeffreys’ scale interpretation of Bayes factors. This observation agrees with prior studies that also found step sites to be most likely the most relevant active sites for pure Pt catalysts. Overall, the results indicate that tin, in addition to affecting the binding strength of the adsorbed species, prevents deeper dehydrogenation (reducing coking) and cracking reactions through increasing activation barriers for unwanted side reactions.
Research Organization:
Ames Laboratory (AMES), Ames, IA (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1996167
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-23-21983
Journal Information:
ACS Catalysis, Journal Name: ACS Catalysis Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 13; ISSN 2155-5435
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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