Highly Active Doped Mesoporous KIT-6 Catalysts for Metathesis of 1-Butene and Ethene to Propene: The Influence of Neighboring Environment of W Species

Tungsten-doped mesoporous KIT-6 (W-KIT-6), mesoporous silica supported WO3/KIT-6, and traditional silica supported WO3/SiO2 catalysts have been successfully synthesized and tested for catalytic metathesis of 1-butene and ethene to propene. The resultant materials were comprehensively characterized by XRD, BET, TEM, UV-DRS, IR, XPS, H-2-TPR, and TGA. For W-KIT-6 catalysts, high concentration of W5+ species by XPS and the difficulty of reduction of W species by TPR suggested the incorporation of W species into the KIT-6 framework. The studies of small-angle XRD, BET, and TEM illustrated that the 3D ordered mesoporous structure and their high surface area of KIT-6 were maintained in W-KIT-6. The doped W-KIT-6 illustrated superior catalytic performance to the supported WO3/KIT-6 and WO3/SiO2 catalysts. The origin of catalytic performance enhancement for W-KIT-6 was preliminarily discussed and was assigned to the incorporation of W species into KIT-6 framework. This study demonstrated the influence of neighboring environment of active components on catalytic performance and was helpful to design metathesis catalysts.