Chromium oxide silica catalyst: synthesis and characterization

The development of active, stable and inexpensive catalysts for an efficient reaction is highly attractive but still very challenging. Although Cr2O3-SiO2 is commonly used for catalytic testing, the wt% of Cr2O3 loading may give different catalytic performance. The objectives of this study are to synthesize Cr2O3-SiO2 (3 wt% and 7 wt% Cr2O3) catalysts and investigate the physical properties of catalysts using SEM, XRD, TGA-DTA and FTIR. It was found that 7 wt% Cr2O3-SiO2 gave better physical properties with good thermal stability and larger particle size. Hence, these characteristics can be used as initial reference in the catalytic reaction