Role of cerium dopants in MoVNbO multi-metal oxide catalysts for selective oxidation of ethane

The effect of Ce on the structure of MoVNbCeO multi-metal oxide catalysts and the performance of ethane selective oxidation was investigated. These multi-metal oxide catalysts with superior oxidizability exhibit high catalytic activity, and vanadium acts as the active center for ethane oxidation reaction . The improved catalytic activity is related to the increased V 5+ content on the catalyst surface, which results from the enhanced transformation of the electrons between V and Ce. Moreover, Ce effectively promotes oxygen adsorption, activation, and mobility. And the presence of Ce can also prevent MoO 3 formation and stabilize the Mo 5 O 14 -like structure. In addition, the catalyst with a moderate amount of Ce exhibits outstanding catalytic performance. Especially, the MVN-Ce catalyst with a Ce/V ratio of 0.1 exhibits the best performance: the total selectivity of the catalyst toward C 2 H 4 and CH 3 COOH is the highest (72%) at the ethane conversion of 31%. Therefore, MoVNbCeO multi-metal oxides are promising candidates for selective oxidation.