Facilitating the reduction of V-O bonds on VO /ZrO catalysts for non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation.

Supported vanadium oxide is a promising catalyst in propane dehydrogenation due to its competitive performance and low cost. Nevertheless, it remains a grand challenge to understand the structure-performance correlation due to the structural complexity of VO -based catalysts in a reduced state. This paper describes the structure and catalytic properties of the VO /ZrO catalyst. When using ZrO as the support, the catalyst shows six times higher turnover frequency (TOF) than using commercial γ-AlO. Combining H-temperature programmed reduction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical studies, we find that the interaction between VO and ZrO can facilitate the reduction of V-O bonds, including V[double bond, length as m-dash]O, V-O-V and V-O-Zr. The promoting effect could be attributed to the formation of low coordinated V species in VO /ZrO which is more active in C-H activation. Our work provides a new insight into understanding the structure-performance correlation in VO -based catalysts for non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation.