Temperature and hydrocarbon partial pressure effect on the isomerization of n-hexane on molybdenum oxycarbide catalyst

The study of n-hexane isomerization on MoO3 shows the formation of a new catalytically active phase, a molybdenum oxycarbide, which exhibits a stable activity and isomer selectivity with time on stream. The study as a function of the reaction temperature shows that a too low temperature does not allows the MoO3 transformation, while a too high temperature prevents the development of the MoOxCy phase to the benefit of a surface carbide phase. For variable n-hexane partial pressure, one can observe the same trend with the apparition of surface carbone and carbide species with higher partial pressures, which are not interesting for the isomerization.