Oxygen functional groups involved in the styrene production reaction detected by quasi in situ XPS

In this work, the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethylbenzene to styrene reaction over an activated carbon felt was studied by experiments of mass spectrometry coupled to a quasi in situ XPS system. These experiments permit to deepen into the mechanism of the aforementioned reaction. The results obtained allow us to conclude that carbonyl-quinone and hydroxyl groups are involved in the ODH. The amount of both types of oxygen groups increases when the ethylbenzene conversion to styrene increases. Therefore, the reaction seems to take place through the carbonyl-quinone/hydroxyl and styrene/ethylbenzene redox couples, confirming that carbonyl-quinone are the active phase in this oxidative dehydrogenation.