Role of sorbed and lattice oxygen in propylene oxidation catalyzed by silica-supported bismuth molybdate

By using gaseous oxygen-18, the oxidation of propylene on a bismuth molybdate catalyst has been shown to include sorbed oxygen at low catalyst temperatures and predominantly oxygen from the lattice at higher temperatures at which oxygen-ion mobility in the lattice becomes appreciable. The oxygen atoms of oxygen-18-enriched carbon dioxide exchanged very rapidly with lattice oxygen and participated in oxidation of propylene to labeled acrolein. In the heterogeneous oxidation of allyl alcohol, the original oxygen in allyl alcohol is found in the acrolein product.