Architecture of industrial Bi-Mo-Co-Fe-K-O propene oxidation catalysts | Science Advances

Industrial heterogeneous catalysts show high performance coupled with high material complexity. Deconvoluting this complexity into simplified models eases mechanistic studies. However, this approach dilutes the relevance because models are often less performing. We present a holistic approach to reveal the origin of high performance without losing the relevance by pivoting the system at an industrial benchmark. Combining kinetic and structural analyses, we show how the performance of Bi-Mo-Co-Fe-K-O industrial acrolein catalysts occurs. The surface BiMoO ensembles decorated with K supported on β-Co _{1− x} Fe _x MoO ₄ perform the propene oxidation, while the K-doped iron molybdate pools electrons to activate dioxygen. The nanostructured vacancy-rich and self-doped bulk phases ensure the charge transport between the two active sites. The features particular to the real system enable the high performance.