Electron synergy effect in the PtCo/CNTs bimetallic catalysts for promoting highly selective and stable hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde

Herein, we synthesized PtCo/CNTs, Pt/CNTs, and Co/CNTs nanocatalysts at room temperature by chemical reduction method. The synergistic effect in PtCo/CNTs for crotonaldehyde (CAL) hydrogenation is investigated. The nanostructures, morphologies, electronic property, Pt–Co interaction, surface characteristic and composition of the catalysts are examined by XRD, BET, SEM, XPS, HRTEM, STEM, STEM-EDX elemental maps and line profiles and H2-TPD. It is found that Pt and Co forms PtCo bimetallic nanoparticles in the PtCo/CNTs catalyst and the PtCo bimetallic nanoparticles are coated on multi-walled carbon nanotubes. And PtCo/CNTs achieves 83.5% CAL conversion, 91.3% crotyl alcohol (COL) selectivity, and 647.4 h−1 turnover frequency (TOF) at 60 °C within 2 h under 3 MPa hydrogen, and its catalytic performance remains basically unchanged after five recycles. According to the analysis, the presence of PtCo bimetallic particles lead to electron transferring from Co to Pt (synergy effect), which improves their activation ability of hydrogen and desorption of CC in COL and thus enhances its selectivity to COL.