Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethanol to Acetaldehyde on Supported Vanadium Oxide

摘要: Supported vanadium oxides have been widely studied as selective catalysts for many redox reactions such as oxidative dehydrogenation of alkanes to alkenes, oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde, ammoxidation of hydrocarbons, but details about the reaction steps and the site requirements remain unresolved [1-3]. Supported V2O5 domains catalyze the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethanol to acetaldehyde [4]. The increasing availability of ethanol makes this route a potential alternative to the Wacker process in current use for acetaldehyde synthesis, provided that high rates and selectivities can be achieved at modest temperatures (400-500 K) and pressures (1 bar)[4]. Ethanol is also a useful probe molecule to complement our previous studies of alkane reactions of realistic catalytic oxide surfaces. Ethanol provides the requisite oxygen functionality within the feed and hence enables assessment of the tendency of a catalyst to dehydration (to ethylene) versus dehydrogenation (to acetaldehyde).