Template-induced mesoporous Ni–Al oxide catalysts with tuned physico–chemical properties for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane

Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane is a potential industrial process to produce ethylene. In this work, the template-induced mesoporous Ni–Al mixed oxide catalysts synthesized by the template-assisted self-assembly method were investigated for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene using O2 as an oxidant. The template-induced structure evolution is an effective means to modulate physico-chemical properties of the Ni–Al mixed oxide, thus, it further improves the catalytic performance. All the mesoporous Ni–Al–template catalysts present higher C2H6 conversions and C2H4 selectivities than bulk NiO and non-porous Ni–Al–O catalysts in the temperature range of 350–500 °C. Meanwhile, up to 49.6% C2H6 conversion and 75.3% C2H4 selectivity (37.3% of C2H4 yield) can be obtained over Ni–Al–F127 catalyst at 500 °C. And the mesoporous Ni–Al–F127 catalyst exhibits a superior stability after a long run. The structure–performance correlation indicates that the remarkable catalytic performance is ascribed to the synthesis driven structural effect. The strong interaction between Ni and Al cations caused by the addition of template promotes the formation of small NiO particles and the better dispersion of NiO, which decreases the content of non-selective oxygen species and increases the availability of lattice oxygen.