Sn-containing hexagonal mesoporous silica (HMS) for catalytic dehydrogenation of propane: An efficient strategy to enhance stability

•Sn-containing HMS exhibits ∼40% propane conversion and good stability up to 170 h.•The enhanced stability is due to strong interaction between Sn species and HMS.•The reaction route of propane dehydrogenation over Sn-HMS has been proposed.

Sn-containing hexagonal mesoporous silica (Sn-HMS) has been synthesized and evaluated for catalytic dehydrogenation of propane. XRD, HRTEM and XPS characterizations jointly evidence that, the Sn species are probably embedded into the lattice of HMS bulk at a relatively low Sn loading amount. Compared with Sn/SiO2 samples prepared by conventional impregnation method, Sn-HMS catalyst exhibits inspiringly higher propane conversion (∼40%) and better dehydrogenation stability up to 170 h, even after three oxidative regenerations. The improved stability of Sn-HMS catalyst is probably resulted from the inhibition of Sn reduction to low-melting-point metallic Sn species due to a strong SnOSi bond, as well as the stabilization of the Sn species induced by the mesoporous structure of HMS substrate. Further, the reaction route of propane dehydrogenation over Sn-HMS catalyst has been proposed.

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