Peony-like Pentahedral Al(III)-Enriched Alumina Nanosheets for the Dehydrogenation of Propane

In this work, a peony-like coordinatively unsaturating pentahedral aluminum(III)-enriched alumina nanosheet (Al2O3-MG) was successfully prepared by a facile glocuse-assisted hydrothermal approach. In this process, the as-prepared melamine-Al(NO3)3 complex acts as Al source, structural directing agent, and precipitant, and the glucose serves as coordination-modulating, isolating, and structure-directing agent. More interestingly, benefitting from the unique morphology and abundant coordinatively unsaturating pentahedral aluminum(III) sites of carrier, the supported Pt–Sn catalyst (Pt–Sn/Al2O3-MG) shows excellent catalytic performance. It gives 26.5% steady-state propane conversion with 99.1% propene selectivity and unexpected catalytic durability for direct dehydrogenation of propane to propene under harsh reaction conditions. This work not only creates an excellent alumina support for highly efficient propane-to-propene catalyst but also opens up a window for designing the other oxide supports with diverse morphologies and coordination states regarding a variety of reactions.