Strain in Silica-Supported Ga(III) Sites: Neither Too Much nor Too Little for Propane Dehydrogenation Catalytic Activity

[Image: see text] Well-defined Ga(III) sites on SiO(2) are highly active, selective, and stable catalysts in the propane dehydrogenation (PDH) reaction. In this contribution, we evaluate the catalytic activity toward PDH of tricoordinated and tetracoordinated Ga(III) sites on SiO(2) by means of first-principles calculations using realistic amorphous periodic SiO(2) models. We evaluated the three reaction steps in PDH, namely, the C–H activation of propane to form propyl, the β-hydride (β-H) transfer to form propene and a gallium hydride, and the H–H coupling to release H(2), regenerating the initial Ga–O bond and closing the catalytic cycle. Our work shows how Brønsted–Evans–Polanyi relationships are followed to a certain extent for these three reaction steps on Ga(III) sites on SiO(2) and highlights the role of the strain of the reactive Ga–O pairs on such sites of realistic amorphous SiO(2) models. It also shows how transition-state scaling holds very well for the β-H transfer step. While highly strained sites are very reactive sites for the initial C–H activation, they are more difficult to regenerate. The corresponding less strained sites are not reactive enough, pointing to the need for the right balance in strain to be an effective site for PDH. Overall, our work provides an understanding of the intrinsic activity of acidic Ga single sites toward the PDH reaction and paves the way toward the design and prediction of better single-site catalysts on SiO(2) for the PDH reaction.