Highly selective Ce-Ni-O catalysts for efficient low temperature oxidative dehydrogenation of propane

Doughnut-like structured CeNiO, prepared by a novel oxalate gel co-precipitation method, exhibited significantly higher activity in oxidative dehydrogenation of propane at a temperature as low as 275 °C than conventional catalysts such as VMgO. It is suggested that oxygen vacancy formed in CeO₂ lattice due to the incorporating of Ni atoms adsorbs and activates the molecular oxygen to form active oxygen species. The superior performance for propane oxidative dehydrogenation over CeNiO catalyst can be attributed not only to the properties of the CeNiO catalyst but also to its unique doughnut-like structure.