Phosphorus-Based Ionic Liquid as Dual Function Promoter Oriented Synthesis of Efficient VPO Catalyst for Selective Oxidation of n-butane

Vanadium phosphorus oxide (VPO) catalysts promoted by phosphorus-based ionic liquids (ILs) as structure directing agent and promoters have been innovatively synthesized and investigated for selective oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride (MA). The catalytic performances showed that the IL addition notably improved the n-butane conversion and MA selectivity, during which the optimized 3%IL-VPO catalyst exhibited the maximum MA yield of 59.2% that is much better than that of blank VPO with 49.4% MA yield under the same reaction conditions. XRD, FI-IR, Raman, SEM, TG, BET, XPS and H 2 -TPR techniques were utilized combinatorically to elaborate the synergistic effect of cations and anions of ILs. Results demonstrated that IL-cations oriented synthesis of VPO precursor showing a vertically intercrossed slice structure morphology having smaller lamellar thickness. Correspondingly, it notably enhanced the specific surface area of the VPO catalysts and exposed the more active surface of (VO) 2 P 2 O 7 after activation. Meanwhile, IL-anions as promoters largely modulated the P/V ratio, valence state of V and oxygen species amounts on the surface of VPO catalyst, etc. All of these influence factors were subsequently discussed in detail and correlated to the catalytic performance of VPO catalysts. Graphic Abstract