Enhancement of Propylene Metathesis Performance of MoO3/Al2O3 with Promotion of Phosphoric Acid

Abstract Catalytic olefin metathesis represents a vital reaction in the chemical industry, as it provides a feasible route for the interconversion of olefins. However, traditional supported catalysts usually suffer from low activity due to sluggish kinetics for the formation of catalytically active metal‐carbene species. This work tackles this issue by taking phosphoric acid as a promoter and constructing a Brønsted acidic site to cooperate with the MoO x sites, thus facilitating the formation of Mo‐carbene. It turns out that the turnover frequency of propene metathesis over the Mo−P/Al 2 O 3 catalyst is 7.1 times higher than that over the unmodified Mo/Al 2 O 3 catalyst. The combined characterization reveals the promotion of phosphorus results from the alignment of olefin toward adjacent MoO x and thus facilitates formation of active Mo‐carbene species.