Deep oxidation of light alkanes over titania-supported palladium/vanadium catalysts

The total oxidation of short-chain hydrocarbons has been studied using a titania-supported palladium catalyst modified with vanadium. A range of catalysts has been prepared by coimpregnation of the titania support with palladium (II) chloride and ammonium metavanadate. The addition of vanadium promoted the rates of oxidation at lower temperatures. Vanadium loadings between 0.5 and 3.0 wt% were investigated and the most active catalyst was 0.5% Pd1.5% V/TiO2. The addition of vanadium decreased the palladium dispersion and the number of surface palladium sites. Microlaser Raman characterisation identified the supported vanadium species and the vanadium loading influenced these. The addition of palladium modified the vanadium species. In particular the presence of palladium increased the concentration of polymeric vanadium species. Temperature-programmed reduction studies showed that the addition of palladium to V/TiO2 significantly increased the ease of catalyst reduction. Characterisation using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that the presence of palladium significantly increased the concentration of V4+ species. It is proposed that the increased catalyst activity is related to the modified redox properties of the catalysts.