Study on Heterogeneous Catalytic Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Isopropylbenzene to α-Methylstyrene

The influence of the FeBiMoO catalysts composition on their properties in the oxidative dehydrogenation reaction of isopropylbenzene has been studied. The catalyst with the atomic ratio of active components Fe : Bi : Mo = 2 : 1 :2 was found to be the optimum for the maximum yield of α-methylstyrene. The assumption that the improvement of catalytic properties is due to the formation of a ternary compound Fe2Bi3Mo2O12, which provides optimal acid-base properties of the catalytic surface, has been approved. The kinetic regularities of the process have been investigated on the catalyst of optimal composition and kinetic equations describing the process have been proposed.