Selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde with PtFex/Al2O3@SBA-15 catalyst: Enhancement in activity and selectivity to unsaturated alcohol by Pt-FeOx and Pt-Al2O3@SBA-15 interaction

Abstract Selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde (CAL) to cinnamyl alcohol (COL) was conducted over a series of FeO x -doped Pt catalysts supported on a 15 wt% Al 2 O 3 @SBA-15 composite (15AS). It was found that the addition of FeO x to the catalyst greatly improved its performance. With an optimal Fe/Pt molar ratio of 0.25, the PtFe 0.25 /15AS catalyst reached a maximum reaction rate (defined as moles of converted CAL per gram of Pt per hour) of 13.93 mol g Pt −1  h −1 with 76.9% selectivity to COL. Additionally, the PtFe 0.25 /15AS catalyst afforded the highest TOF value (defined as moles of converted CAL per mole of Pt active sites per second) of 1.54 s −1 . X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses and H 2 temperature-programmed reduction and CO diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier-transformation spectroscopy studies reveal that there is strong interaction between Pt nanoparticles and Al 2 O 3 @SBA-15 composites and also between Pt and FeO x , resulting in Pt species with a positive charge being dominant in PtFe 0.25 /15AS catalysts. Therefore, Pt species with positive charges, together with FeO x species, are beneficial for preferential adsorption and activation of carbonyl bonds of CAL, so that the activity and selectivity to COL were improved by PtFe x /15AS catalysts ( x represents the Fe/Pt molar ratio).