Recently, the team led by Researcher Xiao Jianping from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the teams led by Researcher Wang Liang and Professor Xiao Fengshou from Zhejiang University, as well as the team led by Professor Liu Xi from Ningxia University, has made new progress in the research on propane dehydrogenation to propylene. A new cobalt silicate zeolite catalyst (CoS-1) has been developed, and the related achievements have been published in Nature Catalysis.

The CoS-1 catalyst developed by the research team has a unique structure of stable isolated tetrahedral cobalt sites in the molecular sieve framework, showing excellent catalytic performance. In addition, under industrial conditions, its propane dehydrogenation performance is superior to that of the traditional industrial PtSn/Al₂O₃ catalyst.

Low-carbon olefins are important raw materials in the modern chemical industry. Through the dehydrogenation of low-carbon alkanes, it is expected to directly produce low-carbon olefins from shale gas, which has important research value. In this study, through stability research and catalytic dynamic simulation, the research team has revealed the structure of the active center of the CoS-1 catalyst and the chemical origin of its high performance.

In addition, the team also proposed that the characteristic of non-bonding adsorption of the molecular sieve is conducive to the rapid desorption of the product propylene, reducing the coking rate of the catalyst, thus enabling CoS-1 to exhibit more excellent long-term stability.