Abstract
Hydrogen spillover, particularly when involving "interparticle" hydrogen spillover, offers a unique opportunity to enhance catalytic efficiency by remote activation of surface acidity. Building on this concept, this study aims to investigate physically mixed alumina-supported platinum nanoparticles (Pt/Al(2)O(3)) and zirconia-supported tungsten oxide (WO(3)/ZrO(2)) in promoting the direct synthesis of cumene from benzene and propane at 300 °C. The reaction with Pt/Al(2)O(3) alone afforded propylene as the only product, indicating the successive reaction route of Pt-catalyzed dehydrogenation of propane, followed by acid-catalyzed alkylation. WO(3)/ZrO(2) with 18 wt.% WO(3) loading resulted in high benzene conversion (≈5.0%) and cumene selectivity (≈87.5%), which possesses poly tungstate species on the surface that is active for the acid-catalyzed alkylation. UV-vis-near infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and in situ Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analyses revealed that atomic hydrogen abstracted from propane spills over from Pt/Al(2)O(3) particles to WO(3)/ZrO(2) particles to form Brønsted acid sites on the poly tungstate species, whose activity for alkylation between benzene and propylene is double that of the parent WO(3)/ZrO(2).