Discovery of new heterogeneous catalysts for the selective oxidation of propane to acrolein.

Combinatorial synthesis and screening technique have been applied to investigate the catalytic activity and selectivity of ternary and quaternary mixed-metal oxide catalysts for the selective oxidation of propane. The catalyst libraries were prepared via a modified sol-gel method using a synthesis robot and library design software, and examined for the catalytic activities in a simple high-throughput reactor system connected to a mass spectrometer for product analysis. Ternary Mo-Cr-Te, V-Cr-Sb, and Mo-V-Cr catalysts have been selected for potential candidate by composition spread approach. In a next generation composition spread library, the composition space of these three ternary compositions was sampled. Screening of this 198-member library provided substantial evidence that each ternary system has its own optimum composition where acrolein formation is highest. In addition, the composition space of the quaternary reference system Mo-V-Te-Nb mixed-oxides has also been prepared and sampled.