Probing the Reactivity of In-Situ Formed Oxygen Vacancies of Non-Noble Lead Oxides for Anodic Propylene Oxidation

Abstract

Electrochemical oxidation of propylene into value-added products represents a promising strategy for producing commodity chemicals using renewable electricity, aligning with the goals of sustainable chemical manufacturing. While noble metal-based catalysts (e.g., Pd- and Pt-based metal oxides) have been extensively studied for this reaction, the possibility of using non-noble metal-based catalysts and their mechanism were largely unknown. Herein, we provide the first-ever experimental demonstration on using stable non-noble metal oxide catalysts (i.e., PbO2) for this reaction, and investigate their reaction mechanism of electrochemical propylene oxidation. Electrochemical in-situ attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy reveals the formation of key surface-bound intermediates during the propylene oxidation process. Moreover, in-situ differential electrochemical mass spectrometry confirms the active participation of lattice oxygen in the reaction, suggesting a lattice oxygen-mediated mechanism. These findings shed light on the reaction pathways of non-noble metal catalysts and provide valuable guidance for the rational design of cost-effective and highly selective electrocatalysts for electrochemical alkene oxidation.

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Aug 2025
Accepted
05 Oct 2025
First published
07 Oct 2025

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025, Accepted Manuscript

Probing the Reactivity of In-Situ Formed Oxygen Vacancies of Non-Noble Lead Oxides for Anodic Propylene Oxidation

J. Ge, T. Wang, X. Zhang, H. Sun, R. Wang, P. Yu, X. Sun, S. Sun, H. Liu, Y. Liu, C. Zhang, B. Da, Y. Zheng, M. Gao and H. Li, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D5CY01032B

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