Studies on the decomposition of isopropyl alcohol on Mg Al2-xFexO4

Abstract

ecomposition of isopropyl alcohol was carried out on the solid solution system MgAI2−xFexO4 (x = 0 to 2). The system exhibited both dehydrogenation and dehydration activities. The selectivity for dehydration did not vary monotonically with change in x, but reached a minimum at X = 0.40. Mechanistic studies were made with a view to identifying the rate-determining step. The nature of the active sites was predicted by means of specific poisoning experiments and interesting correlations were obtained between activity for dehydrogenation and certain physicochemical properties of the system. The important conclusion drawn is that dehydrogenation of the alcohol, as well as the electrical and magnetic properties, are basically influenced by a fundamental property of the spinel system, namely, the symmetry of the catalytically acive Fe3+ site.