Vanadium oxide-porous phosphate heterostructure catalysts for the selective oxidation of H2S to sulphur

Vanadium oxide–containing mesoporous materials, based on a surfactant expanded zirconium phosphate with silica galleries into the interlayer space, named porous phosphate heterostructure (PPH), were prepared by using TEOS and vanadium oxytripropoxide in n-propanol as sources of Si and V, respectively; with different Si/V molar ratios of 1, 2, 5 and 25; and calcining at 550 °C for 6 h. Using this method, vanadium can be partially incorporated to the structure of the gallery, but the surface area strongly decreases and the appearance of V₂O₅ crystallites increases when increasing the vanadium content. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, XPS, TEM, and Raman, and tested in the selective catalytic oxidation of H₂S using a fixed bed reactor, at atmospheric pressure, at 180–260 °C. The catalysts with high contents of vanadium are very active at 200 °C, showing H₂S conversions of 85–99%, with a high selectivity to elemental sulphur and with a low formation of SO₂. Accordingly V₂O₅ crystallites can be proposed as active and selective although the catalytic behavior is related to the number of accessible V-sites in the surface of the catalyst.