Synthesis of Porous Vanadia-Titania Catalyst for Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane

Abstract

A novel synthesis procedure has been applied for the synthesis of mesoporous vanadia-titania catalysts with varying vanadium content in the presence of P123 triblock copolymer as a structure directing agent. The synthesized mesoporous materials exhibited large pore diameter (∼9 nm) and high surface area (120–180 m2/g). Only anatase phase of titania was present in all the samples. Detailed characterization studies suggest the presence of molecularly dispersed reducible surface vanadium oxide species. XPS and 51V NMR results indicate that vanadium species on titania exist primarily in the oxidation state of V5+ and in V2O5 coordination with a form of distorted octahedral. The resulting mesoporous vanadia-titania catalysts are active in the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of propane.