Design and Synthesis of Vanadium‐Titanium‐Incorporated Mesoporous Silica Catalysts for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane

Abstract A series of vanadium and titanium‐incorporated mesostructured cellular foams (MCF) silica with different vanadium contents were synthesized by direct hydrothermal method, which applied as catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODP). Vanadium doping amount significantly affects the distribution and coordination environment of VO x and TiO x species on the MCF silica. With the increasing of V content, the TiO x species incorporated into silica framework were substituted by some framework V species to form more polymeric or small TiO 2 nanoclusters. VO x species were incorporated on both silica surface and TiO x species surface. The interaction between highly dispersed VO x and polymerized TiO 2 enhanced the C 3 H 6 formation rate. The 3 V5Ti/MCF catalysts showed the highest propylene productivity (4.2 kg propylene kg cat −1 h −1 , at 500 °C) among the xV5Ti/MCF catalysts because of the highest concentration isolated/oligomeric VO x species incorporated on the appropriate polymerized TiO 2 surface.