Catalytic performance of V2O5/ZrO2-Al2O3 for methanol oxidation

A bifunctional V2O5/ZrO2-Al2O3 catalyst of oxidation and dehydration was prepared by wet impregnation method and used in methanol oxidation. The redox, acidity and texture properties of the catalyst were characterized by N2 sorption, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD, and XRD. Under mild reaction conditions, V2O5/ZrO2-Al2O3 possesses reasonable acidic and redox properties and exhibits excellent catalytic performance in methanol oxidation with dimethoxymethane, methyl formate and formaldehyde as main products. The catalytic performance of V2O5/ZrO2-Al2O3 is dependent on the catalyst compositions and reaction temperature. V2O5(16.5 wt.%)/ZrO2(8.5 wt.%)-Al2O3 exhibits a good synergistic effect of the redox and acidic properties in the methanol oxidation; over it the selectivity to dimethoxymethane reaches 89.0% with the methanol conversion of 11.1% at 165 °C, while the selectivity to methyl formate is 30.0% with the methanol conversion of 66.1% at 215 °C.