Promoted catalytic performances of highly dispersed V-doped SBA-16 catalysts for oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene

© 2016. V-doped SBA-16 catalysts (V-SBA-16) with 3D nanocage mesopores have been successfully synthesized by a modified one-pot method under weak acid condition. The obtained materials were characterized by means of small angle XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, TEM, UV-Vis and UV-Raman spectroscopy. These characterization results indicated that well-order mesoporous structures were maintained even at higher vanadium loadings and high concentration of VO x species were incorporated into the framework of SBA-16 support. The catalytic performances of V-SBA-16, V/SBA-16 and V/SiO2 catalysts were comparatively investigated for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene. The highest selectivity to ethylene of 63.3% and ethylene yield of 25.6% were obtained over 1.0V-SBA-16 catalyst. The superior catalytic performance of V-SBA-16 catalysts could be attributed to the presence of isolated framework VO x species, the unique structure of SBA-16 support and weak acidity. Moreover, V/SiO2 catalyst exhibited relatively poor catalytic activity duo to the formation of V2O5 nanoparticles on the surface of SiO2 support and the low dispersion of VO x species. These results indicated that the catalytic performances of the studied catalysts were strongly dependent on the vanadium loading, the nature and neighboring environment of VO x species and the structure of support