Overcoming Limitations in the Strong Interaction between Pt and Irreducible SiO Enables Efficient and Selective Hydrogenation of Anthracene.

Interactions between metals and oxide supports are crucial in determining catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability. For reducible oxide supported noble metals, a strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) has been widely recognized. Herein we report the intermediate selectivity and stability over an irreducible SiO supported Pt catalyst in the hydrogenation of anthracene that are significantly boosted due to the SMSI-induced formation of intermetallic Pt silicide and Pt-SiO interface. The limitation in the strong interaction between Pt nanoparticles and irreducible SiO has been breached by combining the strong electrostatic adsorption method and following the high temperature reduction strategy. Due to the isolated Pt active sites by Si atoms, the activated H species produced over the PtSi/SiO catalyst with an initial catalytic activity of 2.49 μmol/(m/g)/h as well as TOF of 0.95 s preferentially transfer to the outer ring of anthracene to 87% yield of symmetric octahydroanthracene (-OHA) by subsequent hydrogenation. In addition, the PtSi/SiO catalyst presents an excellent stability after five cycles, which can be attributed to the fact that intermetallic PtSi nanoparticles are anchored firmly onto the surface of the SiO support. The discovery contributes to broaden the horizons on the SMSI effect in the irreducible oxide supported metal particle catalysts and provides guidance to design the metal-SiO interface and tune the surface chemical properties in diverse application conditions.