Niobium-containing catalysts - the state of the art

This review article is devoted to the materials containing niobium, which have been discovered or developed in the past few years and exhibit the potential application in heterogeneous catalysis. Niobium oxides and mixed oxides as well as sulfides, nitrides (oxynitrides), carbides (oxycarbides), and phosphates. are considered. Among the catalytic processes in which Nb-containing materials were tested, liquid and gas phase oxidation is described in details, and the role of niobium in the prevention of the catalyst from SO2 poisoning is mentioned. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.