Effects of alumina phases on the structure and performance of VOx/Al2O3 catalysts in non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation

Abstract

Abstract Supported vanadium oxides are promising in propane non-oxidative dehydrogenation and the activity of which shows clear support effects. The present study reports the effects of alumina polymorphs on the structure and performances of VOx-based catalysts. VOx/Al2O3 catalysts with the same V surface density were prepared over four different alumina supports (γ-Al2O3, δ-Al2O3, θ-Al2O3, θ,α-Al2O3) obtained by varying the calcination temperature of boehmite. The alumina calcination temperature was shown to affect the surface acid properties and VOx-support interactions and make it possible to tune the activity and coking behavior of catalysts. Weakening the VOx-support interactions due to the change in alumina surface properties was found critical to improve the intrinsic activity of catalysts. The coking behavior of catalysts was shown to depend on both total acid sites and VOx polymerization degree. This study may provide basic principles to tune the performance of VOx-based catalysts for non-oxidative dehydrogenation.