Effect of cerium addition on catalytic performance of PtSnNa/ZSM-5 catalyst for propane dehydrogenation

The effect of cerium addition on the catalytic performance of propane dehydrogenation over PtSnNa/ZSM-5 catalyst has been investigated by reaction tests and some physicochemical characterization such as XRD, BET, TEM, XPS, NH3-TPD, H2 chemisorption, TPR and TPO techniques. It has been found that with suitable amount of cerium addition, the platinum dispersion increased, while the carbon deposition tended to be eliminated easily. In these cases, the presence of cerium could not only realize the better distribution of metallic particles on the support, but also strengthen the interactions between Sn species and the support. Additionally, XPS spectra confirmed that more amounts of tin could exist in oxidized form, which was advantageous to the reaction. In our experiments, PtSnNaCe (1.1 wt%)/ZSM-5 catalyst exhibited the best catalytic performance. After running the reaction for 750 h, propane conversion was maintained higher than 30% with the corresponding selectivity to propylene of about 97%.