Effects of zirconium content on the catalytic performance of BiMoZr x in the oxidative dehydrogenation of 1‐butene to 1,3‐butadiene

BACKGROUND Oxidative dehydrogenation ( ODH ) of 1‐butene has been considered as a potential process for manufacturing 1,3‐butadiene ( BD ). The introduction of metal oxides to pure bismuth molybdate, a promising catalyst for the ODH reaction, can be expected to improve the catalysts performance. In this work, multicomponent bismuth molybdate oxide ( BiMoZr x ) catalysts for ODH of 1‐butene were prepared by a co‐precipitation method with variation of zirconium content (x = 0–0.5), and the influence of zirconium on catalytic performance was investigated.RESULTS The zirconium content has a significant effect on the structure and performance of the catalyst. The conversion of 1‐butene and the BD yield over BiMoZr x catalysts display volcano curves with respect to zirconium content. Among the catalysts tested, BiMoZr 0 .4 exhibits superior activity.CONCLUSION 1‐butene temperature‐programmed re‐oxidation ( TPRO ) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy ( XPS ) characterizations demonstrate that zirconium content is related to the oxygen mobility of BiMoZr x catalysts, and oxygen mobility is a crucial factor determining catalytic performance in the ODH reaction. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry