A Mössbauer Effect Study on the Structural Components in Potassium-Promoted Iron Oxide Catalysts for Dehydrogenation of Ethylbenzene

Potassium-promoted iron oxide catalysts for dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene belong to one kind of complex oxide catalysts with a spinel structure and they exhibit good catalytic properties. In this work, two series of potassium-promoted catalysts were prepared with different potassium-to-iron ratios and using different calcining temperatures. Mössbauer spectroscopy has been used to determine the optimal potassium amount and the lowest calcining temperature for spinel structure formation, and to detect other structural components in the catalysts. Information was obtained for K2CO3-promoted iron oxides which may prove useful for industrial applications of this type of catalysts.