Dehydrogenation of Propane to Propene over Mesoporous ZrO2-Supported VCrO Catalysts

Mesoporous ZrO 2 with narrow mesopore size distributions has been prepared by the surfactant-assisted method of nanoparticle assembly. A series of VCrO/ZrO 2 catalysts with different V/Cr molar ratio (0.3, 0.6, 1.0, 1.3 and 1.6) were prepared by the wetness impregnation method and characterized by XRD, N 2 adsorption and TEM techniques. N 2 adsorption and TEM analysis revealed that the surfactant-assisted method prepared VCrO/ZrO 2 catalysts have wormhole-like mesoporous structure with uniform pore size distribution. VCrO/ZrO 2 catalysts have been applied for direct dehydrogenation of propane to propene. The optimistic catalyst was V/Cr-0.6 with highest yield of 41.7% the corresponding conversion of propane was 44.1% and selectivity to propene was 94.5% at 550 °C.