Structural Characteristics and Reactivity/Reducibility Properties of Dispersed and Bilayered V2O5/TiO2/SiO2 Catalysts

Dispersed and bilayered V 2 O 5 /TiO 2 /SiO 2 catalysts were successfully synthesized by the incipient wetness impregnation method, and their surface structures under various conditions were extensively investigated by combined in situ Raman, UV−vis−NIR diffuse reflectance and X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopies, as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Temperature-programmed reduction and methanol oxidation were employed as chemical probe reactions to examine the reducibility and reactivity/selectivity of these catalysts. The spectroscopic results revealed that both vanadium oxide and titanium oxide on SiO 2 are dispersed as two-dimensional metal oxide overlayers. The surface vanadium oxide species on the dispersed TiO 2 /SiO 2 are predominantly isolated VO 4 units [O V(O−support) 3 ] in the dehydrated state and become polymerized VO 5 /VO 6 units upon hydration. The surface vanadium oxide species preferentially interact with the surface titanium oxide species on silica, and the V(V) cations possess oxygenated ligands of Si(IV)−O - and Ti(IV)−O - in the O V(O−support) 3 unit with varying ratios from 3:0 to 0:3, which depends on the vanadia and titania loadings. The varying ratio of the Si(IV)−O - and Ti(IV)−O - oxygenated ligands significantly affects the chemical properties of the isolated VO 4 units. Consequently, the reducibility of the surface vanadium oxide species is altered and the reduction occurs over a wider temperature range. In addition, the methanol oxidation turn-over frequency of the surface VO 4 species on TiO 2 /SiO 2 increases an order of magnitude relative to V 2 O 5 /SiO 2 . Thus, the oxygenated ligands around the V cations play a critical role in determining the reactivity of the surface vanadium oxide species on the oxide supports.