Ruthenium and gold-doped M1 phase MoVNbTeO catalysts for propane ammoxidation to acrylonitrile

Abstract

Abstract Ammoxidation of propane to acrylonitrile was investigated over the M1 phase MoVNbTeO catalysts doped with 5 wt.% Ru and Au, respectively. The MoVNbTeO mixed metal oxide catalyst was synthesized by a hydrothermal method, whereas ruthenium and gold were introduced by incipient wetness impregnation. The structures of the MoVNbTeO mixed metal oxide and ruthenium- and gold-doped catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD patterns of the original MoVNbTeO catalyst confirmed the formation of the orthorhombic M1 phase, while the XRD patterns of ruthenium- and gold-doped catalysts demonstrated that the presence of ruthenium and gold significantly affected the crystal structure of the MoVNbTeO M1 phase. The catalytic activity was studied in a tubular fixed-bed micro-reactor at atmospheric pressure and 360–445 °C. Ru- and Au-doped MoVNbTeO M1 catalysts showed lower ammoxidation activity than the original MoVNbTeO M1 catalyst. However, both doped catalysts were much more active in the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of propane at relatively low temperature (