ABSTRACT
Pt supported on SiO2 is considered to be a poor catalyst for CO hydrogenation but when Pt is supported on TiO2 its activity can be increased by over two orders of magnitude. The promoting effect of the support was studied by contrasting the reactivity for CO hydrogenation with that for n-butane hydrogenolysis and isomerization reactions which serve, respectively, as structure-sensitive and structure-insensitive probes for the types of sites available on Pt. This chapter examines whether strong metal support interactions are responsible in any way for the activity enhancement seen in the CO hydrogenation reaction on Pt/CeO2. On Pt/TiO2, the drop in hydrogenolysis activity after high-temperature reduction was related to site blocking caused by the migration of TiOx species from the support leading to what has been termed in the literature as the strong metal support interactions state.
