Evidence for Cyclohexyl as a Reactive Surface Intermediate during High-Pressure Cyclohexane Catalytic Reactions on Pt(111) by Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy

Sum frequency generation (SFG) surface vibrational spectroscopy has been used to identify reactive surface intermediates in situ during catalytic dehydrogenation reactions of high-pressure cyclohexane (C(6)H(12)) on the Pt(111) crystal surface in the presence and absence of high-pressure hydrogen. These experiments provide the first spectroscopic evidence of cyclohexyl (C(6)H(11)) as a reactive surface intermediate during the cyclohexane catalytic conversion to benzene at high pressure in the presence of excess hydrogen. In addition, it was proposed from temperature-dependent SFG experiments that dehydrogenation of cyclohexyl is a rate-limiting step in the cyclohexane catalytic conversion to benzene.