Facilitating Pt−WOx Species Interaction for Efficient Glycerol Hydrogenolysis to 1,3‐Propanediol

Abstract Designing efficient catalysts for glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,3‐propanediol (1,3‐PDO), which involves the selective cleavage of the secondary C−O bond, is a challenging task. Current Pt−WO x ‐based catalysts often provide low atom efficiency of W and Pt toward 1,3‐PDO production due to undesired catalyst structures. Herein, we fabricate the highly‐dispersed substantially uniform WO x species on inert α‐Al 2 O 3 support by simple high‐temperature heat‐treatment, and the amount of Pt−WO x interface active sites could be adjusted by Pt loading, showing an excellent catalytic performance in glycerol hydrogenolysis at high concentration of glycerol, especially the unprecedented W efficiency (76 g 1,3‐PDO g W −1 h −1 ) toward 1,3‐PDO. The high catalytic efficiency is attributed to the strong interaction between the isolated WO 4 species and platinum, which could in‐situ generate the Brønsted acid sites during the reaction as evidenced by IR analysis with NH 3 adsorption.