A tailored multi-functional catalyst for ultra-efficient styrene production under a cyclic redox scheme.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33637739.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-21374-2 and PMC identifier 7910546.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Styrene is an important commodity chemical that is highly energy and CO<sub>2</sub> intensive to produce. We report a redox oxidative dehydrogenation (redox-ODH) strategy to efficiently produce styrene. Facilitated by a multifunctional (Ca/Mn)<sub>1-x</sub>O@KFeO<sub>2</sub> core-shell redox catalyst which acts as (i) a heterogeneous catalyst, (ii) an oxygen separation agent, and (iii) a selective hydrogen combustion material, redox-ODH auto-thermally converts ethylbenzene to styrene with up to 97% single-pass conversion and >94% selectivity. This represents a 72% yield increase compared to commercial dehydrogenation on a relative basis, leading to 82% energy savings and 79% CO<sub>2</sub> emission reduction. The redox catalyst is composed of a catalytically active KFeO<sub>2</sub> shell and a (Ca/Mn)<sub>1-x</sub>O core for reversible lattice oxygen storage and donation. The lattice oxygen donation from (Ca/Mn)<sub>1-x</sub>O sacrificially stabilizes Fe<sup>3+</sup> in the shell to maintain high catalytic activity and coke resistance. From a practical standpoint, the redox catalyst exhibits excellent long-term performance under industrially compatible conditions.