Enhanced NiO Dispersion on a High Surface Area Pillared Heterostructure Covered by Niobium Leads to Optimal Behaviour in the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: E. Rodríguez-Castellón, D. Delgado, A. Dejoz, I. Vázquez, S. Agouram, J. A. Cecilia, B. Solsona, J. M. López Nieto, Chem. Eur. J. 2020, 26, 9371, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202000832. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.[EN] A Nb-containing siliceous porous clay heterostructure (PCH) with Nb contents from 0 to 30 wt %) was prepared from a bentonite and used as support in the preparation of supported NiO catalysts with NiO loading from 15 to 80 wt %. Supports and NiO-containing catalysts were characterised by several physicochemical techniques and tested in the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethane. The characterisation studies on Nb-containing supports showed the presence of well-anchored Nb(5+)species without the formation of Nb(2)O(5)crystals. High dispersion of nickel oxide with low crystallinity was observed for the Nb-containing PCH supports. In addition, when NiO is supported on these Nb-containing porous clays, it is more effective in the ODH of ethane (ethylene selectivity of ca. 90 %) than NiO supported on the corresponding Nb-free siliceous PCH or on Nb2O5(ethylene selectivities of ca. 30 and 60 %, respectively). Factors such as the NiO-Nb(5+)interaction, the NiO particle size and the properties of surface Ni(n+)species were shown to determine the catalytic performance.The authors would like to acknowledge the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades of Spain (CRTl2018-099668-B-C21, RTl2018-099668-B-C22 and MAT2017-84118-C2-1-R projects). Authors from ITQ also thank Project SEV-2016-0683 for supporting this research. 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