Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene with CO2 over Al-MCM-41-supported vanadia catalysts

Catalytic performance of Al-MCM-41-supported vanadia catalysts (V/Al-MCM-41) with different V loading was investigated for oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene (ST) with CO₂ (CO₂-ODEB). For comparison, pure silica MCM-41 was also used as support for vanadia catalyst. The catalysts were characterized by N₂ adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD) pyridine-Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, H₂-temperature-programmed reduction, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV-Raman, and diffuse reflectance (DR) UV–vis spectroscopy. The results indicate that the catalytic behavior and the nature of V species depend strongly on the V loading and the support properties. Compared with the MCM-41-supported catalyst, the Al-MCM-41-supported vanadia catalyst exhibits much higher catalytic activity and stability along with a high ST selectivity (>98%). The superior catalytic performance of the present V/Al-MCM-41 catalyst can be attributed to the Al-MCM-41 support being more favorable for the high dispersion of V species and the stabilization of active V⁵⁺ species. Together with the characterization results of XRD, TGA, and DR UV–Vis spectroscopy, the deep reduction of V⁵⁺ into V³⁺ during CO₂-ODEB is the main reason for the deactivation of the supported vanadia catalyst, while the coke deposition has a less important impact on the catalyst stability.