Hierarchical Nano-structuring of Metal Oxide Catalysts - Part 1: Influence of Nano-structuring on the Activity of the Catalysts

The oxidative dehydrogenation of short‐chain alkanes is a suitable model reaction to show correlations between the catalyst structure and the catalytic performance. For all investigated catalysts propane conversion increases with increasing amounts of the catalyticly active components V2O5, MoO3, or TiO2. It is proposed that the catalytic activity is related to the number and size of the contact zones between support and active component.