Butanol Dehydration over V2O5-TiO2/MCM-41 Catalysts Prepared via Liquid Phase Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

MCM-41 was used as a support and, by using atomic layer deposition (ALD) in the liquid phase, a catalyst was prepared by consecutively loading titanium oxide and vanadium oxide to the support. This research analyzes the effect of the loading amount of vanadium oxide on the acidic characteristics and catalytic performance in the dehydration of butanol. The physical and chemical characteristics of the TiO2-V2O5/MCM-41 catalysts were analyzed using XRF, BET, NH3-TPD, XRD, Py-IR, and XPS. The dehydration reaction of butanol was performed in a fixed bed reactor. For the samples with vanadium oxide loaded to TiO2/MCM-41 sample using the liquid phase ALD method, it was possible to increase the loading amount until the amount of vanadium oxide reached 12.1 wt %. It was confirmed that the structural properties of the mesoporous silica were retained well after titanium oxide and vanadium loading. The NH3-TPD and Py-IR results indicated that weak acid sites were produced over the TiO2/MCM-41 samples, which is attributed to the generation of Lewis acid sites. The highest activity of the V2O5(12.1)-TiO2/MCM-41 catalyst in 2-butanol dehydration is ascribed to it having the highest number of Lewis acid sites, as well as the highest vanadium dispersion.

Keywords

• butanol
• dehydration
• MCM-41
• atomic layer deposition
• 1-butene
• vanadium oxide
• titanium oxide