Synthesis of Porous Vanadia-Titania Catalyst for Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane

A novel synthesis procedure has been applied for the synthesis of mesoporous vanadia-titania catalysts with varying vanadium content in the presence of P123 triblock copolymer as a structure directing agent. The synthesized mesoporous materials exhibited large pore diameter (similar to 9 nm) and high surface area (120-180 m(2)/g). Only anatase phase of titania was present in all the samples. Detailed characterization studies suggest the presence of molecularly dispersed reducible surface vanadium oxide species. XPS and V-51 NMR results indicate that vanadium species on titania exist primarily in the oxidation state of V5+ and in V2O5 coordination with a form of distorted octahedral. The resulting mesoporous vanadia-titania catalysts are active in the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of propane.