The single atomic Pt promoted CoMo heterostructure catalyst for efficient sorbitol hydrogenolysis to ethanol

Ethanol (EtOH) is recognized as one of the most crucial biofuels, but the low efficiency and complex bioconversion process limit its commercial utilization. In this study, we design a single atomic Pt promoted CoMo heterostructure catalyst for ethanol synthesis from sorbitol, one of the important biochemical platforms, via a continuous-flow fixed -bed reactor. The Pt1/CoMoO4 catalyst exhibited the best catalytic performance with 99.6% sorbitol conversion and 71.6% EtOH selectivity over a 30 h reaction. A combination of Raman, XPS, XANES, EXAFS, Py-FTIR, and operando EG-DRIFTS provides insight into the synergistic effects between Co0 and Mo5+ active sites during sorbitol hydrogenolysis to EtOH over Pt1/CoMoO4 catalyst. Additionally, it is discovered that the Pt1 single atom promoter activates hydrogen and tunes the electronic properties of Co and Mo species, resulting in forming the highest content of Co0 and Mo5+ active sites with higher stability and promoting the sorbitol hydrogenolysis to EtOH. This work demonstrates the validity of designing efficient catalysts with synergistic multi-active sites. Those are modulated by single atom Pt promoter, for highly selective hydrogenolysis of biomass platforms to highly value-added products.