Fe-containing N-doped porous carbon for isobutane dehydrogenation

Fe-N-C catalysts were synthesized via high temperature calcining Fe-ZIF-8 (Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework) for catalytic dehydrogenation of isobutane. The ultimate catalysts are investigated in detail by a series of characterization in order to explore the relationship between the catalyst structure and catalytic performance. XRD, N-2 physisorption, TEM and Raman illustrate that Fe doping significantly changes the surface and bulk properties of the catalyst. Increased Fe content causes the decrease of specific surface area and the deposition of Fe2O3 nanopartides on the catalysts. XPS, ICP-OES and EA show that the surface states and content of N and Fe are also affected with different amounts of Fe. Isobutane and isobutene TPD demonstrate that Fe-N-C catalysts possess reduced adsorption capacity and weaker interaction, thus exhibit lower isobutane conversion and higher isobutene selectivity compared with N-C catalyst. Moreover, combining other characterizations, such as IR and H-2-TPR, both carbonyl group (C=O) and Fe2O3 species of the Fe-N-C catalysts contribute to the dehydrogenation activity.