Optical detection of organic hydrides with platinum-loaded tungsten trioxide Original Research Article

Tungsten trioxide powder with loading 0.1 wt% platinum (Pt/WO3) was prepared for optical detection of organic hydrides such as cyclohexane, decalin by impregnation with PtCl62− and subsequent calcination in air at 500 °C. The scanning electron microscopic observation of Pt/WO3 shows that the Pt particles with mean diameters of 80–100 nm were on the surface of the WO3 powder. The Pt/WO3 showed coloration for 13% cyclohexane at higher 100 °C and for 1.3% cyclohexane at 200 °C. The in-situ XRD results of the Pt/WO3 in coloring/bleaching change indicate that the coloring of Pt/WO3 was caused by transformation of WO3 to tungsten bronze. The analysis of reacted gas demonstrates that Pt on WO3 produces only hydrogen and benzene through dehydrogenation of cyclohexane over 100 °C. It was founded that the Pt/WO3 has potential of optical detection of organic hydrides by heating at higher 100 °C.