Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene over Mo-incorporated mesoporous SBA-16 catalysts: The effect of MoOx dispersion

• Mo-incorporated SBA-16 catalysts with high loading of Mo have been successfully synthesized and investigated for catalytic ODH of ethane to ethylene.
• Mo-incorporated into the framework of SBA-16 by direct synthesis method results in the formation of highly dispersed and isolated framework MoOx species.
• The selectivity to ethylene over Mo-SBA-16 and Mo/SBA-16 catalysts strongly depends on the subsistent state and dispersion of MoOx species.
• Mo-SBA-16 catalysts exhibit superior catalytic performance for ODH of ethane to ethylene compared with Mo-SBA-15 samples.

A series of highly dispersed Mo-incorporated mesoporous SBA-16 catalysts (Mo-SBA-16) were successfully synthesized by one-step hydrothermal method. The effects of different Mo loadings and MoOx structure of the Mo-SBA-16 catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (ODHE) were investigated. Framework-incorporation promotes a better dispersion of molybdenum oxo species. Different kinds of MoOx species are related to the activity and selectivity of ethylene for ODH of ethane. A small amount of Mo species was incorporated into the framework of SBA-16, which greatly increased the selectivity of ethylene, but the C2H6 conversion was slightly greater than that of Mo/SBA-16 catalysts. Meanwhile, for both Mo-SBA-16 and Mo/SBA-16 catalysts the selectivity of ethylene was significantly enhanced with the increasing of reaction temperature. Moreover, Mo-SBA-16 catalysts showed much higher selectivities of ethylene than Mo/SBA-16 ones, mainly due to the presence of isolated MoOx species in the framework of SBA-16. And the maximal selectivity to C2H4 of 75.7% was obtained over 0.05Mo-SBA-16 catalyst. The three-dimensional mesoporous channels of Mo-SBA-16 allowed a better diffusion of ethane and produced ethylene to improve the catalytic performance.

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