Vapor Phase Dehydration of Glycerol to Acrolein Over SBA-15 Supported Vanadium Substituted Phosphomolybdic Acid Catalyst.

Vapor phase dehydration of glycerol to acrolein was investigated over heteropolyacid (HPA) catalysts containing vanadium substituted phosphomolybdic acid (H4PMo11VO40) supported on mesoporous SBA-15. A series of HPA catalysts with HPA loadings varying from 10-50 wt% were prepared by impregnation method on SBA-15 support. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy, temperature-programmed desorption of NH3, pyridine adsorbed FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, pore size distribution and specific surface area measurements. The nature of acidic sites was examined by pyridine adsorbed FT-IR spectroscopy. XRD results suggest that the active phase containing HPA was highly dispersed at lower loadings on the support. FT-IR and Raman spectra results confirm that the presence of primary Keggin ion structure of HPA on the support and it was not affected during the preparation of catalysts. Pore size distribution results reveal that all the samples show unimodel pore size distribution with well depicted mesoporous structure. NH3-TPD results suggest that the acidity of catalysts increased with increase of HPA loading. The findings of acidity measurements by FT-IR spectra of pyridine adsorption reveals that the catalysts consist both the Brønsted and Lewis acidic sites and the amount of Brønsted acidic sites are increasing with HPA loading. SBA-15 supported vanadium substituted phosphomolybdic acid catalysts are found to be highly active during the dehydration reaction and exhibited 100% conversion of glycerol (10 wt% of glycerol) and the acrolein selectivity was appreciably changed with HPA active phase loading. The catalytic functionalities during glycerol dehydration are well correlated with surface acidity of the catalysts.