Mesoporous sol–gel silica supported vanadium oxide as effective catalysts in oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propylene

Vanadium oxide incorporated mesoporous silica (V-m-SiO(2)) were designed and synthesized using a surfactant-modified sol–gel method. Detailed characterization shows that monomeric [VO(4)] sites containing one terminal V[double bond, length as m-dash]O bond and three V–O-support bonds are dominated until atomic ratio of vanadium to silicon approaches to 5%. It is also confirmed that such V-m-SiO(2) catalyst contains high proportion of vanadium oxide species interacting strongly with silica. Compared to vanadium oxide supported mesoporous silica (V/m-SiO(2)) prepared using a traditional impregnation method, present V-m-SiO(2) catalyst exhibits more superior ability to catalyze oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propylene. By correlation with structural data, superior catalytic performance of present V-m-SiO(2) catalyst can be reasonably attributed, in part, to its favorable geometric and electronic properties rendered by the unique preparation method.