Effect of sulfation on the performance of Fe2O3/Al2O3 catalyst in catalytic dehydrogenation of propane to propylene

• Sulfated Al2O3 supported iron catalysts showed excellent dehydrogenation performance.
• Sulfate species interacted with Fe via Fe–O–S bonds.
• The interaction leads to enhanced acidity and stronger adsorption capacity of C3H8.
• Loss of sulfate species is the main reason for catalyst deactivation.

Iron-based catalyst supported on sulfated alumina was proved to be highly active and selective in catalytic dehydrogenation of propane to propylene. At 560 °C, 20% propylene yield along with more than 80% selectivity was obtained on 20Fe/5S–Al. It was demonstrated that sulfate species mainly existed in the form of SO42- and interacted with Fe atoms via Fe–O–S bond, leading to enhanced acidity especially the generation of Bronsted acids. Meanwhile, propane is more likely to adsorb on Fe species at the electron-deficient state, resulting in higher activity. XPS and on-line MS results indicated the loss of sulfur species in the form of SO2 was the main reason for the irreversible deactivation of catalysts.

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