The effects of oxide supports on the low temperature hydrogenation activity of acetone over Pt/Ni bimetallic catalysts on SiO sub(2), gamma -Al sub(2)O sub(3) and TiO sub(2)

Low temperature (308 K) hydrogenation of acetone was used as a probe reaction to investigate the support effect on the hydrogenation activity of Pt/Ni bimetallic catalysts supported on TiO sub(2), SiO sub(2) and gamma -Al sub(2)O sub(3). The oxide supports significantly affected the catalytic properties of Pt/Ni catalysts, in which Pt/Ni/SiO sub(2) bimetallic catalysts exhibited significantly higher activity than the other two bimetallic catalysts. TEM measurements revealed that the three supported Pt/Ni bimetallic catalysts have similar particle size distribution, while CO chemisorption measurements showed very different chemisorption capacity. Extended X-Ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements of the Pt L sub(III)-edge indicated that Pt atoms were fully reduced and the Pt-Ni bimetallic bonds were formed on all three catalysts. The extent of Pt-Ni bond formation followed the trend of SiO sub(2) > gamma -Al sub(2)O sub(3) > TiO sub(2), which correlated very well with the hydrogenation activity.