Catalytic Mechanisms of Methanol Oxidation to Methyl Formate on Vanadia–Titania and Vanadia–Titania–Sulfate Catalysts

Abstract

Density functional theory calculations were carried out using both cluster and slab models to investigate the catalytic reaction network and the effect of sulfate promoter on methanol selective oxidation using the V2O5/TiO2 catalyst. The hemiacetal mechanism was reaffirmed to be the most favorable reaction pathway for the formation of methyl formate (MF) by the prediction of another reaction pathway involving formic acid. Molecular oxygen was found to assist the desorption of the reaction products from the reduced catalyst active site, both formaldehyde and methyl formate (MF). The mechanism of catalyst regeneration was elucidated based solely on first-principles calculations, which involve the conversion of another methanol molecule to formaldehyde over a peroxo species. This leads to our formulation of a complete catalytic reaction network for methanol selective oxidation to formaldehyde and MF on the V2O5/TiO2 catalyst. In addition, the detailed mechanism for the formation of formaldehyde and MF was al...