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Abstract

There is great global interest in utilization of light alkane feedstocks in the prodn. of petrochems. by selective (amm)oxidn. due to current abundance and lower costs of alkanes compared to the corresponding olefins. However, direct oxidn. of alkanes requires multifunctional catalysts that cope with simultaneous activation of C-H bonds, mol. oxygen and ammonia and that concurrently provide selectively oxidizing oxygen atoms. For selective oxidn. of propane to acrylic acid and ammoxidn. to acrylonitrile, this multi-functionality is implemented in MoVTeNbOx catalysts, which show high activities and selectivities to acrylic acid and acrylonitrile. It has been suggested that the ab-planes of the M1 phase contain the active and selective surface sites. The catalytic role of these planes was investigated by combining the microreactor study of propane (amm)oxidn. over these model catalysts with Low Energy Ion Scattering (LEIS) to selectively det. the at. compn. of the outer surface of the ab-planes.