New article published: Proving disappointing experimental results can be very useful

Jord Haven, Leon Lefferts, and Jimmy Faria (Catalytic Processes and Materials, CPM) have recently published an article in Applied Catalysis A: General, in which they demonstrate that disappointing experimental results can be very useful.

Many plastic materials are long chains of so-called light olefins (ethylene, propylene). The formation of these light olefins via non-oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes is limited by thermodynamic equilibrium. An attractive strategy to increase the olefin yield is by removing hydrogen from the reaction zone using proton-conducting membranes. To optimize hydrogen transport, the dehydrogenation catalyst needs to be deposited onto the proton-conducting material. In this catalyst performance study, they tested this concept by depositing a Pt dehydrogenation catalyst onto the prototypical proton-conducting materials lanthanum tungstate (LWO) and barium cerium yttrium zirconate (BZCY).
 
They found that the olefin selectivity and catalyst stability are considerably worse for Pt/LWO and Pt/BZCY as compared to conventional alumina-supported Pt catalysts. The LWO and BZCY supports contain oxygen vacancies in reductive atmospheres. Consequently, the corresponding support surfaces have an acidic character, which enhances methane formation at the cost of olefin formation. Besides, Pt/LWO and Pt/BZCY are relatively unstable catalyst systems, because of limited anchoring of the Pt active sites. For more details about this study, and for information on potential future research routes to improve the applicability of proton-conducting supports in catalytic systems, check out the corresponding article that is now available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2025.120749

 [JH1]https://www.utwente.nl/en/tnw/cpm/