Synergistic effect between Sn and K promoters on supported platinum catalyst for isobutane dehydrogenation

Catalytic dehydrogenation of isobutane has recently received considerable attention because of the increasing demand for isobutene. In this study, the synergistic effect between Sn and K on PtSnK/γ-Al2O3 catalysts has been investigated by changing the content of Sn. It was found that with the presence of potassium, suitable addition of Sn could not only increase the metal dispersion, but also reduce the catalyst acidity. In these cases, the synergistic effect could also strengthen the interactions between the metal and support, which resulted in an increase in both catalytic activity and stability. In our experiments, Pt-0.6SnK/A1 catalyst exhibited the lowest deactivation rate (12.4%) and showed a selectivity to isobutene higher than 94% at the isobutane conversion of about 45.3% after running the reaction for 6 h. However, with the excessive loading of Sn, surface property of active sites and the interactions between metal and support were changed. As a result, the initial optimal ratio between the metallic function and acid function would be destroyed, which was disadvantageous to the reaction.