Tungsten oxide dispersed on silica (WO3/SiO2) as photocatalysts was prepared by sol–gel method and characterized with various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV Raman spectroscopy (UV Raman), UV–vis spectroscopy (UV–vis), N2-adsorption, X-r

Catalytic performance of VOx/MCM-41 possessing highly dispersed VOx species in non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation (DH) was compared with that of industrially relevant CrOx/MCM-41 and Pt–Sn/Al2O3 over four DH (24 h on-stream) and oxidative regeneration cycles. The effect of reduction with H2 on the catalysts DH properties was also investigated. VOx/MCM-41 in both oxidized and reduced form showed superior time on-stream stability in all DH cycles and its activity could be fully recovered by oxidative regeneration. In situ time-resolved UV/Vis spectroscopy and temperature-programmed oxidation of the used catalysts enabled us to elucidate the origins of the catalysts deactivation. In a single DH cycle, the formation of carbon deposits is the main reason for the deactivation. Activity loss of CrOx/MCM-41 and Pt–Sn/Al2O3 from cycle to cycle was caused by structural changes in the catalytically active metal/metal oxide species. In contrast to these two catalysts, the structure of active VOx species on MCM-41 was not changed during the DH/regeneration cycles, which is the reason for stable performance of the latter catalyst.