Vanadium oxide supported on titania catalysts prepared by the "Equilibrium Deposition followed by Filtration" method (EDF) and the conventional Wet-impregnation method (WI) were extensively characterized by the joint use of various physicochemical techniques (BET, XRD, FT-IR, DRS, XPS, AEM, TPR, and TPD of NH3 ) and were tested for the partial gas-phase oxidation of o-xylene. It was found that the EDF method leads to more selective monolayer catalysts. The increased selectivity has been attributed to the reduction of the surface acidity, to the enhancement of the Vv/ VIV ratio and to the redox properties induced in this catalyst by the above preparation method In the present work we report for the first time the influence of the EDF preparation method on the physicochemical characteristics of VOx/ Ti02 catalysts as well as on their performance for selective gas-phase oxidation of o-xylene to phthalic anhydride.
EXPERIMENTALCatalysts preparation: Two different VOx/ Ti@ catalysts were prepared. Ti02 (Degussa P-25, SSA : 50 rn2g-l, average particle size : 3Onm, 80% anatase) was used as the support in both cases. In order to prepare the VOx/"i02-EDF sample an amount of Ti02 powder equal to 5.4 g was suspended in a NH4V03 aqueous solution of 1.5~10-3 mol V dm-3, volume totaling 2.5 dm3. The ionic strength of the solution was adjusted to 0.1 mol dm-3 by NH4N03 while the suspension pH was regulated at 4.5 using HN03. This suspension was stirred at constant temperature (25OC) for 24 h and then filtered through membrane filters [Millipore, 0.22ml. The solid was dried at 12OOC for 2.5 h. Then it was calcined at 500OC for 5 h in air. The filtrate was analyzed spectrophotometrically [Varian, Cary-3,UV-VISI for Vanadium at 392 nm.The second sample (VOx/ Ti@-WI) was prepared by the conventional wet-impregnation method. A calculated amount of vanadyl oxalate to give the same V-loading on the final catalyst with that of the VOx/ Ti02-EDF sample was diluted in 100 cm3 of H20 . 3.8g of Ti02 support was added and the H20 was removed in a rotary evaporator under vacuum at 8OoC within 4 h. The solid underwent the same thermal treatment as described above. These preparation steps were repeated several times in order to prepare about 30 g of each catalyst. This amount was necessary for the activity tests.-143 -Phvsicochemical characterization: The specimens prepared were characterized using (i) the BET method (adsorbed gas: N2) to determine the specific surface area (SSA), (ii) X-ray diffraction patterns obtained with a powder X-ray diffractometer (Philips PC automated, radiation: Cu-Ka filtered through Ni, range: 10<28/degree<75) to investigate the formation of crystal phases, (iii) FT-IR spectra of the samples in the form of tamplets with KBr recorded with a FT-IR spectrophotometer (Perkin-Elmer 16 PC) to study the structure of the supported species, (iv) X-ray photoelectron Powder X-ray diffraction patterns of these samples revealed that no characteristic XRD peak is found due to the V-oxide phase. However, since the possib...