Effect of preparation conditions on the phase composition of the MoVTe(Nb) oxide catalyst for the oxidative conversions of propane

The replacement of expensive propylene by propane, which requires the development of catalysts for the direct oxidation of propane into acrylonitrile, is an important and insufficiently studied problem. Multicomponent Mo m V n Te k Nb x oxide systems are promising in one-stage ammoxidation of propane to acrylonitrile. Despite considerable attention of various authors to the preparation methods for these catalysts, the reproducibility of their physicochemical and catalytic properties is low. To optimize the technology of catalyst synthesis, we studied the effect of drying method (evaporation or spray drying) for the aqueous suspension of the initial compounds on the formation of the Mo1V0.3Te0.23(Nb0.12) oxide catalyst. It is shown that the method of drying determines the chemical and phase composition of solid catalyst precursors and the phase composition of the final catalyst in high-temperature treatment. The use of spray drying provides the required physicochemical characteristics of the catalyst (the specific surface area and the phase composition) that determine the high activity and selectivity in the selective conversion of propane. These catalysts contain two crystalline phases: orthorhombic M1 and hexagonal M2 in an optimal ratio of 3: 1.