Tin-Assisted Fully Exposed Platinum Clusters Stabilized on Defect-Rich Graphene for Dehydrogenation Reaction

Tin-assisted fully exposed Pt clusters are fabricated on the core–shell nanodiamond@graphene (ND@G) hybrid support (a-PtSn/ND@G). The obtained atomically dispersed Pt clusters, with an average Pt atom number of 3, were anchored over the ND@G support by the assistance of Sn atoms as a partition agent and through the Pt–C bond between Pt clusters and defect-rich graphene nanoshell. The atomically dispersed Pt clusters guaranteed a full metal availability to the reactants, a high thermal stability, and an optimized adsorption/desorption behavior. It inhibits the side reactions and enhances catalytic performance in direct dehydrogenation of n-butane at a low temperature of 450 °C, leading to >98% selectivity toward olefin products, and the turnover frequency (TOF) of a-PtSn/ND@G is ∼3.9 times higher than that of the traditional Pt₃Sn alloy catalyst supported on Al₂O₃ (Pt₃Sn/Al₂O₃).