Multiple Promotional Effects of Vanadium Oxide on Boron Nitride for Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane

Featuring high olefin selectivity, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has emerged recently as an attractive catalyst for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP). Herein, we report that dispersion of vanadium oxide onto BN facilitates the oxyfunctionalization of BN to generate more BOx active sites to catalyze ODHP via the Eley-Rideal mechanism and concurrently produce nitric oxide to initiate additional gas-phase radical chemistry and to introduce redox VOx sites to catalyze ODHP via the Mars-van Krevelen mechanism, all of which promote the catalytic performance of BN for ODHP. As a result, loading 0.5 wt % V onto BN has doubled the yield of light alkene (C-2-C-3) at 540-580 0 C, and adding an appropriate concentration of NO in the reactants further enhances the catalytic performance. These results provide a potential strategy for developing efficient h-BN-based catalysts through coupling gas-phase and surface reactions for the ODHP process.

Automated summary

We report a catalyst with vanadium oxide dispersed onto hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), which catalyzes the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP) via the Eley-Rideal mechanism and the Mars-van Krevelen mechanism. The results show that loading 0.5wt% V significantly improves the yield of light alkene. Adding an appropriate concentration of nitric oxide further enhances the catalytic performance. This provides a potential strategy for developing efficient h-BN-based catalysts for ODHP by coupling gas-phase and surface reactions.