Sol-gel derived V2O5-TiO2 mesoporous materials as catalysts for the total oxidation of chlorobenzene

This paper examines the effect of sulfation of aerogel vanadia–titania catalysts prepared by sol–gel route on its activity in the total oxidation of chlorobenzene. The catalysts have been characterized by means of ICP-AES, N2 physisorption, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, XPS, H2-TPR and NH3–TPD. This study demonstrated that the VTiS ternary catalyst exhibits higher activity compared to binary VTi. This result could be explained by the fact that sulfate species improves the acidity of the solid and hence ensures that vanadium species are in a high oxidation state leading to a better activity of sulfated catalyst.