Optimization of Fe/SiO2 based metal oxides as selective oxidation catalyst of propane with combinatorial approach

A combinatorial optimization with genetic algorism was performed on the five generations of 0.05 atm% Fe/SiO2 added multi-metal oxides to be used as catalytic materials for the selective oxidation of propane to give aldehydes at 623-773 K. The loaded multi-metal oxides consist of some elements selected from seven elements with various atomic charges or redox properties. For the best materials, selectivity toward aldehydes from 35% at 1st generation to 45% at 4th generation were achieved at 5% propane conversion. Further rational optimization of the best performance catalyst also improves the selectivity up to 49.5%.