Photocatalytic non-oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethene with near unit selectivity.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41130963.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-64389-9 and PMC identifier 12549993.
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Abstract
The non-oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes to alkenes is thermodynamically limited by the trade-off between the cleavage of C-H and C-C bonds. Unlocking the thermodynamic bottleneck with photocatalysis is prone to eliminate undesirable side reactions such as deep dehydrogenation, cracking, isomerization, and polymerization. Herein, we show the photocatalytic non-oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethene and hydrogen at ambient conditions, which is enabled by grafting of Ni single atoms to modulate the surface electronic structure of Pd nanoparticles photo-deposited on the surface of anatase TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles, modifying the ethane dehydrogenation pathway. A high rate of 8.2 ± 0.2 mmol·g<sup>-1</sup>·h<sup>-1</sup> for the stoichiometric conversion of ethane to ethene and hydrogen is achieved with a 100% ethene selectivity in a flow reactor under solar light irradiation. The apparent quantum efficiency reaches ~22.3% at 350 nm by using the optimal T-Ni<sub>0.6</sub>Pd<sub>0.24</sub> photocatalyst. Solar-driven non-oxidative alkane dehydrogenation offers a route to light alkenes with high performance, and selectivity.