Boosting propane combustion over Pt/WO3 catalyst by activating interface oxygen species

Surface active oxygen species in heterogeneous catalyst material is very vital for driving catalytic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) oxidation, but it still remains challenging to effectively modulate such active oxygen species. Herein, the interfacial oxygen species in Pt/WO3 catalyst is conveniently activated by a heating treatment under nitrogen flow. The obtain Pt/WO3-N2-T (T = 200, 400, 600, represents the calcination temperature) shows much superior catalytic activity than the bare Pt/WO3 catalyst, particularly for the Pt/WO3-N2-400 catalyst with T95 of only 250 degrees C (T95 of Pt/WO3 = 350 degrees C). The changes of catalyst structure during heating treatment in nitrogen flow contributes to the improved activity, including re-dispersed WO3 support and Pt nanoparticles. More importantly, the surface oxygen species in the Pt/WO3-N2-400 catalyst is more active than that of the bare Pt/ WO3 catalyst, which is generated by removing hydroxyl groups and its residual oxygen species activated by nearby Pt species. These novel findings provide the strategy to rationally activate surface oxygen in the heterogeneous catalyst materials for catalytic oxidation reaction.