• Identical work

Investigating supported vanadium oxide catalysts has received much attention in recent years because of their activity and selectivity for several oxidation and dehydrogenation reactions of light alkanes. Hence, it is very important to determine the type and structure of the vanadium oxide species involved. From Raman and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) experiments, it has been suggested that vanadium oxide on SiO₂ is present in a hydrated state whose structure may be similar to that of V₂O₅. Here, vanadium oxide catalysts supported on SBA-15, a nanoporous siliceous molecular sieve having a high surface area (> 800 m²/g) were investigated by XAS. The aim of this study was to determine the structure of the hydrated state and the dehydrated state before and after thermal treatment, respectively.