A diagram in the joint research paper entitled In Situ Formation of ZnOx Species for Efficient Propane Dehydrogenation [Photo/Shanxi University]

Shanxi University, the China University of Petroleum and scientific research institutes from Germany jointly published a paper on the latest research results on propane dehydrogenation (PDH) catalysts in the Nov 10 issue of leading British scientific journal Nature.

The paper was entitled In Situ Formation of ZnOx Species for Efficient Propane Dehydrogenation. 

It was completed by a research team led by Zhao Dan and Jiang Guiyuan from the China University of Petroleum, Tian Xinxin from the Institute of Molecular Science at Shanxi University, a research team led by Evgenii V. Kondratenko and Jiao Haijun from the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Germany, as well as the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

Combining experimental observations and first-principles theoretical calculation results, the paper has demonstrated the in-situ preparation, characterization and reaction mechanism of  environmentally compatible support PDH catalysts based on commercial ZnO.

The research has also clarified the formation and action mechanism of PDH active sites at the molecular level, providing new ideas for the rational design of efficient catalysts in the future.