The proposed project focuses on the investigation of the nature of active sites in vanadia supported catalysts and their activity/selectivity in selective oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. A range of catalyst synthesis methods, including the variation of the chemical nature of the support surface, will be used to modify the nature of vanadium species and to control their relative concentration. The distribution of the vanadium species and their properties will be determined by using advanced characterization techniques comprising DR UV-Vis, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, SEM imaging, H2-TPR/O2-TPO among others.

The activity of the catalysts having different distribution of the vanadium species will be determined for selective oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. By combining the catalytic data with the detailed physico-chemical characterization of the catalysts, the role (activity/selectivity) of different vanadium species will be determined. This will allow an improved design of selective oxidation catalysts for the oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes in future.