Vanadia supported on H2O2-detemplated mesoporous SBA-15 as new effective catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane

Mesoporous SBA-15(H2O2) material synthesized via a controlled H2O2-based detemplation at mild conditions has been employed as new type of support to load vanadia. The ordered mesostructure of the SBA-15 host is retained as indicated by XRD and nitrogen adsorption measurements, and the surface areas of the V-SBA-15(H2O2) materials are in the range of 464–667 m2 g−1 comparable to 772 m2 g−1 for the parent SBA-15(H2O2) material. The characterization results also indicate the presence of a high abundance of surface silanol groups inside the silica pores, which can allow controlled vanadia loading up to 4.5 wt% or V coverage up to 1.01 V nm−2. In contrast to conventional calcination-derived SBA-15(C) sample the high population of the surface hydroxyl groups as well as high structural stability of the SBA-15(H2O2) material allowed a very good dispersion of the vanadia on its surface leading to high productivities of propylene during the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane.