MoO^sub 3^ Nanoclusters Decorated on TiO^sub 2^ Nanorods for Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene

Preparation of metal oxide supported nanostructure appears to be interesting and challenging because of the well-defined morphology and highly accessible active sites responsible for catalysis. Here we present an easy approach to synthesize a novel hybrid material composed of highly dispersed MoO3 nanoclusters on TiO2 nanorods of diameter 80-150 nm and length between 1-1.5 µm. These hybrid nanostructure catalysts exhibited excellent oxidative dehydrogenation activity for the conversion of ethane to ethylene with an ethylene yield of 50.7% in the presence of O2. The result shows markedly high synergy between the surface Mo+6 and ultrathin TiO2 nanorods, which selectively activates the C-H bond of ethane for the production of ethylene.