Raman spectroscopy during catalytic operations with on-line activity measurement (operando spectroscopy):: a method for understanding the active centres of cations supported on porous materials

Raman spectroscopy with on-line activity measurement (operando Raman spectroscopy) is used to reach a molecular understanding of the structure activity relationship of supported vanadium oxide catalysts during alkane selective oxidation and ammoxidation reactions. The advantage of the operando methodology is that the molecular structures are recorded during true catalytic operation, thus affording information about the structures relevant to the catalytic performance. It is shown that efficient propane ammoxidation requires both surface mono-oxo vanadium oxide species and SbVO4 phases.