A Facile Approach to Tune WOx Species Combining Pt Catalyst for Enhanced Catalytic Performance in Glycerol Hydrogenolysis

Selective hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived glycerol to 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) is of significant industrial value. The conventional synthetic approach for the supported Pt–WOx catalysts with potential for industrial application generally required a high Pt loading with an aim to create more Pt–O–W interfaces owing to the difficulty in controlling the formation of active WOx species and their high dispersion on supports. In this study, a thin coating of a WOx–Ta2O5 solid solution on a Ta2O5 surface was successfully fabricated by the calcination of W-precursor-containing Ta2O5 at a high temperature (i.e., 900 °C), leading to high dispersion of low-polymeric tungsten oxide with abundant oxygen defects on the support surface. The oxygen defects of the WOx species in the WOx–Ta2O5 solid solution layer played a key role in anchoring and dispersing platinum species to maximize the Pt–O–W interface. WOx(900)/Ta2O5-supported Pt exhibits much higher catalytic efficiency toward the production of 1,3-PDO (TOF1,3-PDO = 23.2 g1,3-PDO·gPt–1·h–1) than that of WOx(500)/Ta2O5-containing Pt derived from routine calcination temperatures. Several characterization techniques were applied to examine the state change of WOx on the support by varying the calcination temperature, as well as the effect of WOx species on the dispersion and chemical states of platinum species.