Molybdenum oxide reactivity

The cations in transition metal oxides often occur in more than one oxidation state. Molybdenum oxide is a good example, as the Mo cation may be in the 6-r, 5-r, and 4+ oxidation states. Oxide surfaces with the cation in the lower oxidation state are usually more reactive than those in the highest oxidation state. Such ions can engage in reactions that involve changes in valence state. 

A. Christodoulakis, E. Heracleous, A.A. Lemonidou and S. Boghosian, An operando Raman study of structure and reactivity of alumina-supported molybdenum oxide catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane, J. 

In order to circumvent this problem the rate-determining step was bypassed by using more reactive reagents, allyl alcohol and allyl iodide. These allylic probes were expected to adsorb on the molybdenum oxide surface to provide, respectively, M-O-C and M-C bonded intermediates. These studies were carried out with a sample of 9.0 wt% Mo03/Si02, which Raman spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction showed to consist of fine (- 5nm) crystallites of M0O3 (23). 

The difference in reactivity of the butadiene precursor toward 02 and NzO is interesting. N20 is known to be active in selective oxidation (16). For example, on molybdenum oxide (16) and cobalt magnesium oxide (17), NzO decomposes at room temperature to form an O adsorbed species which is very active in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. The results presented above suggest that the degradation of butadiene precursor on a-iron oxide requires an 02 and not an 0" species. This implies that the degradation proceeds via a peroxide intermediate. 

Recently, Brill and co-workers (43, 44) have isolated mutant strains of Azotobacter vinelandii which produce an inactive nitrogenase component. This component can be reactivated by treatment with the neutralized acid-hydrolysis products of other nitrogenases (which themselves become inactive on such a treatment) but not apparently with any other molybdenum enzymes. This may either reflect a difference between the cofactor in nitrogenase and other molybdenum enzymes or may be caused by the reconstitution conditions used which may not have been sufficiently varied to allow for different molybdenum oxidation states to be attained. In any event, the chemical characterization and authentication of the molybdenum cofactor should reveal some of the intimate details of the molybdenum site. 

Gryzbowska et al. [106] compared the reaction products formed when pulses of allyl iodide or propene were passed over bismuth oxide or molybdenum oxide. A clear limitation of these experiments is that even the simplest bismuth molybdate catalysts contain neither bismuth oxide nor molybdenum oxide, but instead are made up of a binary oxide of bismuth and molybdenum, whose structure is different to that of bismuth oxide and molybdenum oxide. Gryzbowska et al. selected allyl iodide because of the very low bond dissociation enthalpy associated with the C-I bond, implying that a surface allyl species would readily form from this starting material. In addition, a lower reaction temperature was required for the reaction of allyl iodide than for propene reflecting the greater inherent reactivity of the former. 

Control of reaction paths on catalyst surfaces by optimizing the structure and electronic properties is a key issue to be solved in surface science. Iron/molybdenum oxides are used as industrial catalysts for methanol oxidation to form formaldehyde selectively. The iron /molybdenum oxide catalyst consists of Fe2(Mo04)3 and M0O3, and shows kinetics and selectivity similar to those of M0O3 for methanol oxidation [Ij. It suggests that Mo-O sites play an important role in the reaction. M0O3 has a layered structure along a (010) plane, but the (010) surface is not reactive because it has no unsaturated Mo site [1]. On Mo metal surfaces such as (100) [2,3] and (112) [4], major products in methanol reactions were H2 and CO. Therefore, we considered that partial oxidation of Mo sites is needed for the selective oxidation of methanol. We have reported that methanol reaction pathways on Mo(l 12) could... 

The formation of free M0O3 phase, characterized by relatively low melting point (795°C), could be considered as critical for rapid sintering in oxidizing conditions. In the same time, the formation of the reactive molybdate in the interaction of the active phase and catalyst support contribute to activity decline. Intensive loss of active component as an additional reason, with crystals of molybdenum oxide formed at the laboratory reactor outlet is specially pronounced in steam atmosphere. 

High selectivity was also reported for the ammoxidation of 4-methylpyridine, e. g. over vanadium-molybdenum oxides [90] highly dispersed vanadia on sili-cated alumina [91] or on vanadium-containing molecular sieves (VSAPO, VAPO [92], also used for the ammoxidation of 3-methylpyridine [93,94]). The ammoxidation of 2-methylpyridine leads to the formation of large amounts of pyridine, by total oxidation of the methyl group and subsequent decarboxylation, in addition to the desired nitrile [95]. Yields in excess of 90% can, nevertheless, be achieved, e. g. over vanadium-tin oxide at ca 670 K [23] or over molybdenum phosphates [96]. When the ammoxidation of 2-, 3- and 4-methylpyridine over vanadium phosphates was compared catalyst activity and the nitrile selectivity reflected the reactivity order 4- > 3- > 2-methylpyridine, probably as a result of different sterie hindranee [41]. 

Commercial heterogeneous HDS catalysts for refinery use consist, almost without exception, of nickel- and/or cobalt-promoted molybdenum oxide located on a high surface area (approx. 300 m g ) alumina or silica-alumina support. Cobalt and nickel promoters increase the catalytic activity, particularly towards thiophenes whether Co or Ni is used as a promoter depends on the specific function for which the catalyst should be optimal. The catalyst material is shaped into porous pellets, a few millimeters in size, and these pellets are loaded into the reactor, forming a catalyst bed of 30-200 m volume. During start-up of a freshly loaded reactor, the catalyst bed, which is in the oxidic form, is sulfided, typically by treatment with an oil feed which has been spiked with a reactive sulfur compound that readily generates H2S in situ. The oxidic precursor phases (non-stoichiometric CoMo or NiMo surface oxides) are thereby converted into sulfidic phases termed Co-Mo-S and Ni-Mo-S. The conversion from the oxidic phase to the sulfidic is accompanied by a reduction in Mo oxidation state from +6 to +4. 

Subsequent Mo-pterin model investigations addressed a seeond provocative aspeet of Rajagopalan s proposed Moeo strueture. The 1982 proposal for Moco paired an oxidized Mo center with a redueed tetrahydropterin - a juxtaposition of the highest molybdenum oxidation state with the most reduced form of pterin - that seemed incompatible and implied possible redox reactions between the metal and the organie eofactor. This seetion deseribes studies direeted at exploring whether molybdenum and pterin redox reactions might occur. These studies were conducted from 1989 to 1999 and inelude reactivity studies of oxidized molybdenum(vi) with redueed pterins, and studies of redueed molybdenum(iv) with oxidized pterins and pteridines. 

The modeling of molybdenum-based classical catalysts supported on alumina was improved by the use of calculations with periodic boundary conditions [10, 49, 52], which better represent the alumina surface [67]. It became possible to describe the relative stabilities of the different surface sites, including the effect of temperature and water pressure. The more stable (110) and (100) alumina surfaces were considered, and the investigation focused on the structure of the potential initial molybdenum-oxide monomeric and dimeric species, as well as the corresponding methylidene species and their reactivity with ethene [10,49]. 

Chiistodoulakis, A., Heracleous, E., Lemonidou, A., etal (2006). An Operando Raman Study of Structure and Reactivity of Alumina-supported Molybdenum Oxide Catalysts for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane, J. Catal., 242, pp. 16-25. 

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