Interaction between VO nanowires and high pressure CO gas up to 45 bar: Electrical and structural study.

In the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) process that converts ethylbenzene to styrene, vanadium-based catalysts, especially VO, are used in a CO atmosphere to enhance process efficiency. Here we demonstrate that the activation energy of VO can be manipulated by exposure to high pressure CO, using VO nanowires (VON). The oxidation of V to V was observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The ratio of V/V which the typical comparable feature decreased 73.42%. We also found an increase in the interlayer distance in VON from 9.95 Å to 10.10 Å using X-ray diffraction patterns. We observed changes in the peaks of the stretching mode of bridging triply coordinated oxygen (V-O), and the bending vibration of the bridging V-O-V, using Raman spectroscopy. We confirmed this propensity by measuring the CO pressure-dependent conductance of VON, up to 45 bar. 92.52% of decrease in the maximum conductance compared with that of the pristine VON was observed. The results of this study suggest that ODH process performance can be improved using the VON catalyst in a high pressure CO atmosphere.