Characterization of Cr-MCM-41 and Al,Cr-MCM-41 mesoporous catalysts for gas-phase oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclohexane

Maria Lezanska, Grzegorz S. Szymanski, Piotr Pietrzyk, Zbigniew Sojka, Johannes A. Lercher

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effects of the Cr concentration in hydrothermally synthesized Cr-MCM-41 and the impact of various postsynthesis treatments including grafting with alumina were investigated. Using physicochemical characterization by XRD, diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy, EPR spectroscopy, 29Si MAS NMR spectroscopy, H2 TPR, and acidity measurements, formation of mono- and dichromate surface species as well as CrV, dispersed CrIII, and clustered CrIII was detected, confirming the high speciation and valence versatility of the surface chromium. The roles of each species in the preparation stage, calcination, leaching, and grafting are discussed. Leaching resulted in removal of all isolated CrIII species, suggesting that CrIII is attached to the MCM-41 surface via silanol groups. The resulting materials exhibited low acidity, with both Lewis and Brønsted acid sites being present. The oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of cyclohexane was catalyzed by Cr-MCM-41 with a conversion of up to 25.7% in the temperature range of 533-633 K. The CrIII sites have been concluded to be responsible for cyclohexane ODH, but total activity was influenced by the presence of easily reducible CrVI at the beginning of the reaction. During the reaction, high-valence Cr ions were reduced to clustered Cr2O3 species.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1830-1839
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry C
Volume111
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Feb 2007

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