Recently, Ph.D. Xiaochen Zhao and Ph.D. Jia Wang has made new progress in selective hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol.They report a highly dispersed Au into Pt/WO_x catalysts for selective hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol. The study have published as cover picture in ChemSusChem.

Articlelink: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cssc.201601503/abstract

A highly dispersed Au and Pt catalyst supported on WO_x wasdeveloped for high performance in the selective hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) under very mild reaction conditions (81.4% glycerol conversion, 51.6% 1,3-PD selectivity at 413 K, 1 MPa H₂). The highly dispersed Au decreasedthe original surface Lewis-acid sites on Pt/WO_x but greatly increased its in situ generated Brønsted-acid sites with the assistance of H₂ through the formation of frustrated Lewis pairs.These in situ formed and spatially separated pairs of H⁺ and H^- function as the active sites in glycerol conversion to 1,3-PD.

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Programof the Chinese Academy of Sciences , and National Key Projects for Fundamental Research and Development ofChina.