Tuning the surface composition of novel metal vanadates and its effect on the catalytic performance

Abstract

Tuning the surface composition of metal vanadates using different cations leads to the development of a new class of highly effective catalysts tested in the ammoxidation of 2-methylpyrazine. Especially, an enrichment of V in the near-surface region is beneficial for improved selectivity. With this approach, a knowledge based optimisation of the catalysts was possible for the first time, which indeed led to highly efficient novel LaVO_x catalysts with a high yield of 2-cyanopyrazine (≥85%) and extremely high space-time-yields (ca. 525 g⁻¹_CP kg⁻¹_cat h⁻¹).