Dynamic tracking of exsolved PdPt alloy/perovskite catalyst for efficient lean methane oxidation

Supported Pd based catalysts are considered as the efficient candidates for low-carbon alkane oxidation for their outstanding capability to break C-H bond. Whereas, the irreversible deactivation of Pd based catalysts was still frequently observed. Herein, we reinforced the extruded Pd nanoparticles with quantitive Pt to assemble the evenly distributed PdPt nanoalloy onto ferrite perovskite (PdPt-LCF) matrix with strengthened robustness of metal/oxide support interface. We further co-achieved the enhanced performance, anti-overoxidation as well as resistance of vapor-poisoning in durability measurement. The operando X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (O-XPS) combined with various morphology characterizations confirms that the accumulation of surface deep-oxidation species of Pd4+ is the culprit for fast activity loss in exsolved Pd system, especially at high temperature of 400 °C. Conversely, it could be completely suppressed by in-situ alloying Pd with equal amount of Pt, which helps maintain the metastable Pd2+/Pd shell and metallic solid-solution core structure. The density function theory (DFT) calculations further buttress that the dissociation of C-H was facilitated on alloy/perovskite interface which is, on the contrary, resistant toward O–H bond cleavage, as compared to Pd/perovskite. Our work suggests that the modification of exsolved metal/oxide catalytic interface could further enrich the toolkit of heterogeneous catalyst design.