LAUSR

Direct propane dehydrogenation (PDH) is an attractive on‐purpose strategy for propylene production. Compared with high‐priced Platinum and toxic Chromium oxide, ZnO based catalysts attract wide attention due to its low‐cost and environment‐friendly character. Herein we report silicalite‐1 supported ZnO catalysts for PDH reaction. They exhibited an excellent catalytic performance. The catalyst with 5 wt% Zn exhibited the best propane yield with propane conversion reaching 49 % and propylene selectivity around 90 % at a space velocity of 5000 ml ⋅ g−1 ⋅ h−1. Characterization with N2 adsorption, XRD, SEM, TEM, EDS, NH3‐TPD, UV–vis, XPS, 29Si MAS NMR, FT‐IR, Py‐IR and TGA reveal that the high activity and stability can be attributed to the dispersed ZnO species due to the interaction between silanol nests of silicalite‐1 support and ZnO species. This study may open a promising way for development of highly efficient PDH catalysts.