Surface acidity of supported vanadia catalysts

The surface acidity of SiO₂, γ-Al₂O₃ and TiO₂ supported vanadia catalysts has been studied by the microcalorimetry and infrared spectroscopy using ammonia as the probe molecule. The acidity in terms of nature, number and strength was correlated with surface structures of vanadia species in the catalysts, characterized by X-ray diffraction and UV-Vis spectroscopy. It was found that the dispersion and surface structure of vanadia species depend on the nature of supports and loading and affect strongly the surface acidity. On SiO₂, vanadium species is usually in the form of polycrystalline V₂O₅ even for the catalyst with low loading (3%) and these V₂O₅ crystallites exhibit similar amount of Brönsted and Lewis acid sites. The 25%V₂O₅/SiO₂ catalyst possesses substantial amount of V₂O₅ crystallites on the surface with the initial heat of 105 kJ mol^-1 and coverage of about 600 mmol g^-1 for ammonia adsorption. Vanadia can be well dispersed on g-Al₂O₃and TiO₂ to form isolated tetrahedral species and polymeric two-dimensional network. Addition of vanadia on γ-Al₂O₃ results in the change of acidity from that associated with g-Al₂O₃ (mainly Lewis sites) to that associated with vanadia (mainly Brönsted sites) and leads to the decreased acid strength. The 3%V₂O₅/TiO₂ catalyst may have the vanadia structure of incomplete polymeric two-dimensional network that possesses the Ti-O-V-OH groups at edges showing strong Brönsted acidity with the initial heat of about 140 kJ mol^-1 for ammonia adsorption. On the other hand, the 10%V₂O₅/TiO₂ catalyst may have well defined polymeric two-dimensional vanadia network, possessing V-O-V-OH groups that exhibit rather weak Brönsted acidity with the heat of 90 kJ mol^-1 for NH₃ adsorption. V₂O₅ crystallites are formed on the 25%V₂O₅/TiO₂ catalyst, which exhibit the acid properties similar to those for 25%V₂O₅ on SiO₂ and γ-Al₂O₃.