Vanadium Phosphorus Oxides

The selective oxidation of ra-butane to give maleic anhydride (MA) catalyzed by vanadium phosphorus oxides is an important commercial process (99). MA is subsequently used in catalytic processes to make tetrahydrofurans and agricultural chemicals. The active phase in the selective butane oxidation catalyst is identified as vanadyl pyrophosphate, (V0)2P207, referred to as VPO. The three-dimensional structure of orthorhombic VPO, consisting of vanadyl octahedra and phosphate tetrahedra, is shown in Fig. 17, with a= 1.6594 nm, b = 0.776 nm, and c = 0.958 nm (100), with (010) as the active plane (99). Conventional crystallographic notations of round brackets (), and triangular point brackets (), are used to denote a crystal plane and crystallographic directions in the VPO structure, respectively. The latter refers to symmetrically equivalent directions present in a crystal. 

Vanadium phosphorus oxides (VPO) are commercially used as catalysts for the s5mthesis of maleic anhydride from the partial oxidation of n-butane. The phase constitution and the morphology of the catalyst are found to be dependent on the preparation routes and the applied solvent [78]. Recently, a method to prepare VPO catalysts in aqueous solution at elevated temperature was reported [79]. In addition to the linear relationship between specific activity and surface area, a small group of catalysts exhibit enhanced activity, which could be due to the combination of a higher proportion of V phases in the bulk of vanadyl pyrophosphate (V0)2P207 catalyst [79, 80]. With high relevance to the catalytic properties, the microstructure characterisation of VPO therefore is of great importance. 

Complex vanadium-phosphorus-oxide catalysts are the most successful industrial catalysts for the selective oxidation of /i-butane to maleic anhydride (MA) with uses in tetrahydrofurans (THE) and polyurethane intermediates. A schematic diagram of the reaction is shown in figure 3.21(a). These catalysts have been studied extensively (e.g. Centi et al 1993, Bordes 1987). In the selective catalysation of a-butane to MA, the best active phase in the V-P-0 system is identified as the vanadyl pyrophosphate, (VO)2P207 (hereafter... 

SELECTIVE OXIDATION OF METHYL ETHYL KETONE TO DIACETYL OVER VANADIUM PHOSPHORUS OXIDE CATALYSTS. 

Selective oxidation of methyl ethyl ketone to diacetyl has been studied by passing a mixture of the ketone in artificial air over vanadium phosphorus oxide catalysts in the temperature range 200-350 C. Products observed included diacetyl, methyl vinyl ketone, acetaldehyde, acetic acid and carbon dioxide. C4 products were favoured at low temperatures and at low or zero oxygen partial pressures. These results are rationalised in terms of two pathways for C2 products, namely oxidation of the double bond in the enol form of methyl ethyl ketone to yield acetic acid and acetaldehyde, and acid catalysed hydration of the keto form to yield acetaldehyde only. The C4 products are envisaged to go through a common intermediate, namely, CH3COCHOHCH3, formed by interaction between methyl ethyl ketone and lattice oxygen. 

Diacetyl (DA) is used as a flavour enhancer in the food industry and is currently manufactured from methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) in homogeneous systems via an oxime intermediate (ref.1). In principle, DA can also be manufactured by the selective oxidation of MEK and several reports have appeared in the literature which apply heterogeneous catalysts to this task (refs. 2-4). A number of reports have specified the importance of basic or weakly acidic sites on the catalyst surface for a selectively catalysed reaction and high selectivities to DA at moderate conversions of MEK have been reported for catalysts based on C03O4 as a pure oxide and with basic oxides added conversely scission reactions have been associated with acidic oxide additives (refs. 2-4). Other approaches to this problem have included the application of vanadium phosphorus oxide (VPO) catalysts. Ai (ref. 5) has shown that these catalysts also catalyse the selective oxidation of MEK to DA. Indeed this catalyst system, used commercially for the selective oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride (ref.6), possesses many of the desired functionalities for DA formation from MEK, namely the ability to selectively activate methylene C-H bonds without excessive C-C bond scission. 

C for 2 hours in air yielding a vanadium phosphorus oxide catalyst with a nominal P V atomic ratio of 1.2 1. The final product was dark green in colour. This catalyst will be identified below as 1.2PV(dir). 

Grasselli, R.K. and Sleight, A.W. (1991) Key Structure-Activity Relationships in the Vanadium Phosphorus Oxide Catalyst System, Elsevier, Amsterdam. 

Conte et al. (2006) EPR, Raman Vanadium phosphorus oxides Phase transformation, metastable structures + + + Butane partial oxidation... 

Vanadium phosphorus oxides (VPO) are good catalysts for selective O- and N-insertion reactions of aliphatics and methylaromatics, in particular for the oxidation of -butane to maleic anhydride (MA) and for the ammoxidation of methylaromatics and heteroaromatics to the corresponding benzonitriles (47,48). VOHPO4 O.5H2O is a well-defined crystalline compound used as a precursor of... 

While the techniques described above are widely applied in the study of metal oxide catalysts, they are not necessary suitable for systems that contain paramagnetic nuclei. Paramagnetic nuclei, as discussed in Section 5.3.1.2, are not observable by conventional NM R techniques and furthermore can increase the linewidths, sometimes to beyond observable limits, of neighboring nuclei. This poses a problem when studying catalytic metal oxides that contain paramagnetic centers. Vanadium phosphorus oxides (VPO), for instance, contain paramagnetic V. ... 

One-step partial oxidation of propane to acrylic acid (an essential chemical widely used for the production of esters, polyesters, amides, anilides, etc.) has been investigated so far on three types of catalysts, namely, vanadium phosphorus oxides, heteropolycompounds and, more successfully, on mixed metal oxides. The active catalysts generally consist of Mo and V elements, which are also found in catalysts used for the oxidation of propene to acrolein and that of acrolein to acrylic acid. 

Vanadium-Phosphorus-Oxides from Fundamentals of n-Butane Oxidation to Synthesis of New Phases... 

The abundance and low cost of light alkanes have generated in recent years considerable interest in their oxidative catalytic conversion to olefins, oxygenates and nitriles in the petroleum and petrochemical industries [1-4]. Rough estimates place the annual worth of products that have undergone a catalytic oxidation step at 20-40 billion worldwide [4]. Among these, the 14-electron selective oxidation of -butane to maleic anhydride (2,5-furandione) on vanadium-phosphorus-oxide (VPO) catalysts is one of the most fascinating and unique catalytic processes [4,5] ... 

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