Highly Active Isolated Single-Atom Pd Catalyst Supported on Layered MgO for Semihydrogenation of Acetylene

Selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene is an important industrial reaction. In this work, we report a highly efficient Pd/MgO catalyst loaded with ultralow (0.05 wt %) levels of palladium for the selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene. Palladium single-atom catalysts exhibited an excellent catalytic performance for semihydrogenation of acetylene with the highest ethylene selectivity of about 82% at 200 °C due to facile desorption of ethylene against the overhydrogenation to unwanted ethane. This work provides a very simple route to prepare a highly active, selective, and low-cost Pd catalyst for the semihydrogenation of acetylene.