Selectivity for alkane oxidation

The data presented above showed that the oxidative dehydrogenation reactions of the various alkanes share many common features. Thus it is tempting to discuss selectivity for alkane oxidative dehydrogenation with a common scheme. The reaction scheme for ethane oxidation [Eqs. (5)-(7)] provides a useful basis for such a discussion. It shows that the primary reaction of alkane oxidation can take on three different pathways depending on the reaction temperature (Scheme I). The first step in all three pathways is breaking a C—H bond, which is the rate-limiting step. The three pathways are described below. 

TABLE 1 Activity and Selectivity for Alkane Oxidation over bulk activated V0(H2P04)2 ... 

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