The increasing propene demand has accelerated the development of on-purpose propane dehydrogenation (PDH) technologies. Because of rapid catalyst deactivation caused by the high operating temperature, frequent catalyst regeneration cycles are required in industrial processes. While efficient PtGa-based PDH catalysts have been developed, the origin of the promotional effect of Si and the need for only small amounts of Pt to improve the catalyst regenerability are not fully understood. Herein, we find that incorporating Si and decreasing the Pt loading in Si-containing PtGa catalyst supported on alumina, that is prepared via a surface organometallic chemistry approach, improves both stability and regenerability of catalysts. Detailed analyses of in situ/operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy confirm that the increased PDH performances correlate with a regeneration of the Pt-Ga interaction due to enhanced Pt-Ga redox dynamics.
Sakamoto et al. (2026) studied this question.