The Selective Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane on Catalysts Derived from Niobium Pentoxide: Preparation, Characterisation and Properties

It has been shown that niobia is a selective catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane. The activity and selectivity of the niobia are shown to depend on the temperature of calcination, the T-phase exhibiting a slightly higher selectivity than the TT-phase. Attempts have been made to prepare supported niobia catalysts using low-area α-alumina as support material. The activities of these materials were slightly higher than those of the unsupported catalysts but the selectivities were lower. Details are given of the characterisation of the catalysts using various physical techniques such as FTIR with water adsorption, laser-Raman spectroscopy, XRD and TG-DTA.