Blowing in the tube | Nature Catalysis

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe The method is based on the use of silica-supported metal-precursors for each element of the targeted intermetallic compound. The team chose

platinum–zinc alloys to begin with, and accordingly prepared Pt/SiO2 and ZnO/SiO2 precursors via incipient wetness impregnation. Such precursors are physically mixed and heated under

hydrogen atmosphere in a flow reactor (pictured, panel a), with a stepped thermal profile. At a temperature between 170–350 °C platinum is first reduced under the reactive environment and

forms a nucleation site (pictured, panel b). Thus, an increase in temperature to above 350 °C triggers the reduction of the ZnO with the simultaneous migration of mobile zinc atoms to the Pt

seed, forming an ordered intermetallic PtZn alloy. Optimization of the synthesis parameters guided by spectroscopic characterization resulted in the formation of an alloy with a specific

composition — PtZn1.4/SiO2. This material proved to be a very active catalyst for the dehydrogenation of propane to propylene, showing high selectivity under industrially relevant

conditions. Thanks to a straightforward regeneration approach, the catalyst was also able to achieve a very good durability for over 1,300 h on stream. The team also extended this atomic

gas-migration approach to the preparation of other intermetallic catalysts competent for propane dehydrogenation, including platinum–gallium and plating–indium. The generality of the method,

together with the possibility of preparing ordered structures, make this atomic gas-migration approach an interesting tool for the catalysis community. The successful preparation of

intermetallic alloys active for other gas–solid reactions as well as the ability to scale up the synthesis of the desired material remain as questions for future studies to demonstrate the

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AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Catalysis https://www.nature.com/natcatal Davide Esposito Authors * Davide Esposito View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Davide Esposito. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Esposito, D. Blowing in the tube.

_Nat Catal_ 7, 1053 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-024-01246-w Download citation * Published: 23 October 2024 * Issue Date: October 2024 * DOI:

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