Oxidative dehydrogenation of propane over three-dimensionally ordered macroporous VMgO catalysts with different vanadium doping

A series of three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) VMgO catalysts were prepared by the colloidal crystal templating method. The obtained catalysts were characterized by means of BET, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD and H-2-TPR. The results show that the amount of vanadium species can have an impact on the morphology of the 3DOM VMgO catalysts, i.e. particle size and porous structure. The catalyst with 32 wt% V2O5 shows the highest catalytic performance with the yield of propene amounting to 11.3%. Compared with the amorphous conventional VMgO, the 3DOM structured catalysts exhibited higher propene selectivity due to that the efficient diffusion of intermediates and inhibition of consecutive propene oxidation. The FT-IR, XRD and H-2-TPR data confirm that isolated VO4 tetrahedral groups are the main promoting factor in the catalysis. Further, the 3DOM VMgO catalysts show high stability in the catalysis.