Porous Single‐crystalline Centimeter‐sized α‐Al₂O₃ Monoliths for Selective and Durable Non‐oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane

Abstract

Alpha alumina (α‐Al2O3) are inert materials with outstanding thermal, chemical and mechanical stability. Herein, we fabricate porous single‐crystalline (PSC) α‐Al2O3 monoliths at centimeter scale to endow them with high catalytic activity while maintaining their stability. We reduce PSC α‐Al2O3 monoliths to create oxygen vacancies in lattice and stabilize them by the ordered lattice to construct unsaturated Al−O coordination structures for enhancing the catalytic activity. The generation of oxygen vacancy at 18e wyckoff position contributes to the unsaturated Al−O coordination. As a case study, we demonstrate the outstanding performance with conversion (≈34 %) and selectivity (≈95 %) toward non‐oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene at 700 °C. We achieve the outstanding performance without obvious degradation even after a continuous operation over 1000 hours at 700 °C.