Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Dilute plasmonic alloys offer a route to couple light harvesting with site-specific surface chemistry, but how host and dopant sites cooperate during multi-step hydrocarbon transformations remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that silica-supported CuPt single-atom alloys decouple the elementary steps of propane dehydroaromatization. The Cu host promotes visible light-assisted C-C coupling of C3 intermediates, but Cu remains inactive for direct alkane C-H activation. Introducing atomically dispersed Pt in Cu unlocks propane dehydrogenation and enables a parallel aromatization pathway to benzene under illumination. Isotopic labeling, wavelength- and power-dependent kinetics, catalyst comparisons, and theoretical modeling support a bifunctional mechanism in which Pt sites generate dehydrogenated C3 intermediates, the Cu host facilitates C-C coupling, and the Cu-Pt interface promotes cyclization. These results establish light-assisted single-atom/host cooperation as a design principle for plasmonic alkane upgrading.
Source: ChemRxiv
Language: English
Subfield: Catalysis
Field: Chemical Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7221788039