Chromium oxide supported on ZSM-5 as a novel efficient catalyst for dehydrogenation of propane with CO2

ZSM-5-supported chromium oxide catalysts prepared by an incipient wetness method have been tested for the dehydrogenation of propane to propylene in the presence of carbon dioxide. Several techniques including XRD, N-2 adsorption, SEM, Al-27 MAS NMR, XPS, Raman spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectroscopy and H-2-TPR were applied to characterize the physicochemical properties of the assynthesized materials. Catalytic tests show that the chromia catalyst supported on Na-type ZSM-5 with smaller crystal size (ca. 400 nm) exhibits a good catalytic performance, which is much more active than that supported on ZSM-5 with larger crystal size (ca. 2 pm). A high number of Cr(VI) species in the calcined catalyst is crucial for its high catalytic activity in the dehydrogenation of propane to propylene with CO2. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.