Promotion effect in Pt–ZnO catalysts for selective hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol: A structural investigation

Pt–ZnO catalysts prepared from different precursors, H2PtCl6 and Pt(NH3)4(NO3)2, and reduced at increased temperatures are used to achieve high selectivity towards crotyl alcohol in hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde. The ex-chloride catalyst shows a higher activity and selectivity than the ex-nitrate one. Transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, high-resolution imaging, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and element mapping are used to characterize the catalysts in order to correlate the microstructure to the catalytic behavior. PtZn alloy formation is confirmed for both ex-chloride and ex-nitrate catalysts reduced at 673 K. The metal particles in ex-nitrate catalyst are smaller in size than those in ex-chloride. In most aggregates of the ex-chloride catalyst, chlorine is distributed homogeneously with low concentration (<1%). The higher chlorine concentration in some region leads to local morphology and microstructure changes. Influences of the observed structural features such as alloy formation, particle size difference, formation of ill-defined material, and chlorine distribution are discussed.