Selectivity of active sites on oxide catalysts

Oxidative conversion of light alkanes to olefins over alkali promoted oxide catalysts

“…That is, the conversion rate of propane is about three times higher than that of propene under the same conditions. It seems that these catalysts have a preference for alkanes though the weakest bond in propene is about 40 kJ/mol weaker than the weakest bond in propane [21]. This might be because propene cannot react any other way than by deep oxidation to CO x as observed in Fig.…”