Low-temperature catalytic performance for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane on nanosized Ti(Zr)–Ni–O prepared by modified sol–gel method

Nanosized Ti(Zr)–Ni–O prepared by modified sol–gel method exhibited good low-temperature catalytic performance: 11.5% yield with 48% selectivity towards propene and 10.3% yield are obtained on Ti–Ni–O and Zr–Ni–O, respectively, at 275 °C for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene. SEM and XRD results indicated that the Ti(Zr)–Ni–O nanoparticles were well-distributed and of typical diameter ca. 7 nm. The lattice parameters of the obtained nanostructured Ti(Zr)–Ni–O catalysts increased distinctly and there were stronger interaction between TiO2/ZrO2 and NiO. The interaction effectively restrains the deep oxidation of propane and leads to the increasing propene selectivity.